I craned my head to find the source of the noise, and everyone at our table did the same.
At the front of the hall, the door swung open, and two people were entering. They were walking slowly, shuffling as if ancient. One of them was hunched over with a hooded robe over them as if to hide them from the lights of the hall. The other had their arm across the shoulders of the first, helping and holding them up.
I stood slowly, as if in slow motion, as I realized what I was looking at.
It was Luke, with his arms around a familiar figure. My only friend and a rebellious spark of a woman, somebody I admired and strived to emulate.
Harlow.
But Harlow looked broken and pieced back together like she’d been shattered and mended poorly with all her pieces askew. There was something disconcerting about her, not just her body but the energy around her. Normally Harlow was the biggest spirit in the room, the one everybody noticed and one that drew attention to her.
But now, she was a shadow of her former self. She was limping and weak, the cloak covered her from head to toe, and I feared what her body looked like underneath. It would look like mine had before the treatments. The life-saving beauty treatments and medication were reserved for Uppers alone. As a Lower, my dearest friend was thrown to her own devices and left without support.
I couldn’t help myself. I knocked my chair over onto its back and began to walk towards them. All eyes were on me as I crossed the room, speeding up the closer I got.
“Harlow,” I called out. “Oh my god, what happened to you?”
I expected anything in her eyes, pain or sorrow, even joy at seeing me now before her.
But the last thing I expected was pure, savage rage.
She locked her gaze on me and curled her lip as she sneered, “You happened to me, Willow. You did this to me. I never want to talk to you again, so kindly fuck off before I tell everyone all of your dirty little secrets.”
I felt the blood drain from my face, and I stepped back, letting her pass. My eyes sought Luke, and when I found him, he shook his head slowly. “Not now,” he mouthed, and although he didn’t hate me or show the anger that Harlow had, he was clearly marking his place in all of this.
Lower with Lower, and Upper with Upper.
I’d never felt more divided or more alone.
CHAPTER4
“You can’t blame yourself,”Alexander told me later that night. He and Rome had snuck into my room and were on either side of me on my big, comfortable bed. There had been no sex, just kissing and touching, but nothing more. It wasn’t that I didn’t want it. I was just too exhausted still. And I craved their attention and love more than I craved their cocks.
“It’s not on you,” Rome agreed. “It’s that bitch Baker. She kept you both in there too long. I can’t believe Harlow survived like that. She looked horrible.”
“That’s what I looked like before treatments,” I said. “That’s how bad it was for me, too.”
“Oh god, little sparrow, I’m sorry. This is also my father’s doing. He’s out of control,” Alexander said. “He rants about the Lowers trying to force their way into Upper spaces, but he’s the one who’s trying to cling to the whole system and make everyone want to change. He can’t see that none of us want this anymore. We can see they’re just people like us, and we don’t want to oppress them just to make a dollar off their backs.”
I loved it when Alexander ranted about things like this, when he wanted to change the world with me, when he understood how backward the entire thing was.
But right then, I hated Mr. Remington for more than just being a predatory rich bastard, and I hated him for what he’d allowed.
“Did you know your father tried to have sex with me?” I asked, even though it still felt like a lie when I said it. I couldn’t remember his father trying to make a deal as he claimed, but I took him at his word.
“No, but I’m not surprised,” he said, and the muscles in his jaw clenched again. He was sexy when he was angry, but not when he was hurt. And when faced with the kind of man his father was, there was nothing but hurt in his eyes. “He’s always strayed, all through his marriage and from the time I was young. I remember him taking me for father and son days and meeting with women. I was always told that I could never let my mother know about them.”
“He tried to force me,” I said, admitting it even more.
“He fucking what?” Alexander exclaimed, sitting up. “He fucking tried? I’ll kill him, the fucking bastard!”
“He didn’t succeed,” I said. “But that’s the reason he sent me away. There was something that happened on the night of the accident.”
“What?” he yelled, then quieted down when I gave him the evil eye. If they were caught in here, I might go back to the Pit. The thought of it tightened my stomach and had me feeling as if I was being watched already, like somebody was lurking in the shadows hoping to send me back.
Rome felt my tension and pulled me into his arms as I spoke with Alexander. He ran his hand along my arm and settled it on my waist, where he held me carefully, with much comfort.
“What did he try on that night?” Alexander asked. “What happened?”