Harleigh
“Hey,I thought I’d find you up here.” Celeste joined me on the roof terrace, choosing the egg-shaped chair. “How are you feeling?”
“Will you believe me if I say fine?” My brow quirked up, and she chuckled.
“Nope, but I won’t tell if you won’t.”
“God, I love it up here.” A sigh escaped me.
It was the only place where I could breathe. The highest point in the house with an incredible view of Old Darling Hill. The lights of the town twinkled in the distance, like the stars winking above us.
“I think you’d live up here if you could.”
She wasn’t wrong.
The house on the edge of Old Darling Hill was practically palatial with its gated access, long winding driveway, and perfectly tended lawns. It reminded me of a small-scale White House, fronted with pristine alabaster columns and rows and rows of symmetrical windows. It was grand and beautiful and the epitome of the American dream.
But it wasn’t my dream.
Instead, it was a nightmare I’d found myself trapped in. A warped reality where I was supposed to forget about my Darling Row upbringing.
I shut down those thoughts. It never did me any good going back to that time of my life. Those memories.
I wasn’t that girl anymore.
My life was with my father and his wife Sabrina now and their children: my half-sister Celeste and her brother Max. Michael was my guardian, this mansion my prison.
“Are you ready for school on Monday?”
“I don’t think I’ll ever be ready,” I admitted.
Celeste made it easy. Too easy sometimes. I liked her a lot. She was kind and funny and she didn’t take herself too seriously, which was a small miracle given that she was half Michael Rowe and half Sabrina Delacorte. But their icy cold genes had obviously skipped their firstborn, passing Celeste and planting themselves firmly in Max. He was barely sixteen and one of the meanest kids I’d ever met.
And I’d gone to a school full of mean kids before being ripped from my life and implanted here.
“DA isn’t so bad, you’ll see.”
DA: Darling Academy, my new school starting Monday.
Celeste gave me a reassuring smile. “At least I can show you around. And I’m sure Nate will be happy to—”
“I’d rather not talk about Nate Miller.”
He’d been one of the first people to approach me at the mixer last month with his smug smirk and cocky attitude. It was my first ‘appearance’ at one of my father’s events. What a disaster that had been.
“You mean you aren’t fooled by his dashing charm and riveting conversation?” She rolled her eyes playfully. “The guy is a douchebag.”
“Kind of? He tried to feel me up the first time we met.”
“Is that why you stabbed him with the fork?”
“I didn’t stab him… it slipped.”
“Slipped, right.” The corner of her mouth twitched. “You’re so bad, Harleigh.”
I managed a small smile in return. It wasn’t like I went out of my way to be bad. But these people were… so not my people. Celeste was okay. She wasn’t driven by how much money daddy had in the bank or who was wearing the latest designer label. She was normal. Well, as normal as you could be when your parents were filthy rich.
“I wish you were a senior too.” I let out a heavy sigh, staring out at the view. The Rowe estate had a natural perimeter marked by the tree line. I’d spent weeks dreaming of escaping over the fence and making a run for it. Of course, my father’s housekeeper and security guy had been briefed to ‘keep an eye out for me.’