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She sobbed and launched herself into my arms. I held her, even though I didn’t want to. It looked like she was going through something life-changing, and if this whole thing directed her to being a better person, I sure as hell wouldn’t stand in her way.
“I hated her so much. I wassofucking mean to her. She never told my dadoncehow mean I was to her. She lied to himeverytime he asked. She told me all she’d ever wanted was a sister. That she didn’t care about having a father-daughter relationship with my dad, but I refused to believe her. She even told me she’d take a bullet for me, andI laughedin her face! Laughed! I told her that was bullshit people told other people to manipulate them into trusting them. Andstill… she saved me.”
“Harper, whatever you think about people in general… Whatever you think of the world, I can promise you, Temperance doesn’t fit in that category. She’s far different than anyone I’ve ever met.”
I felt her nod against me. “I just didn’t want to see it. Now, I’ve lost everything. My dad cut me off. Despite Temperance’s efforts, he didn’t believe her. He knew better. He cut me off, and it’s bad. I tried talking to him, but he won’t answer my calls or my texts. And Temperance… I went to school today. I thought I could do it, but I couldn’t. All the whispers about what happened going around. Everyone talking. Temperance wasn’t there, and I knew it was because she was still too sick to come in. I couldn’t do it. So, I just came home.”
“We do that shit to hereveryday. Forweeks, we’ve done that to her, and she’s shown up every single day.” She nodded in response to my words. “And you couldn’t even make it throughoneday.”
She shook her head. “No. I’m not like her.”
“And you never will be, but you can still be a good person.”
“I want to go see her. I want to apologize. I don’t know if she will even talk to me, either. She may have saved me, but I saw the way she looked at me in the headmistress’s office. She was disgusted.”
I sighed. “You still have to be strong enough to try.”
Several moments passed before she pulled away, looking into my eyes. “Will you go with me? You don’t have to like… stand with me or whatever. Just go there with me. She’s right down the hall. Like three doors down.”
I shook my head. “She’s not home. She stayed at Justin’s last night with him and Luna, but I’ll go. I wanted to talk to her, too.”
Rushing forward, she tackled me in another hug. “Thank you.”
“Don’t get too excited. She’s pissed at both of us. She may not want to see either of us.”
She sighed and pushed herself to her feet. “Like you said. We have to at least try.”
CHAPTER THIRTY-NINE
TEMPERANCE
My head had throbbed since I’d started to come down off the Rohypnol. It was a migraine nothing would touch, and it pissed me off more than anything. I was forced to suffer even more at the hands of those two bitches, Becky and Melinda, and my asshole of a sister.
I still couldn’t believe I’d lied for her. I still couldn’t understand why I’d done it. Every time I thought it over, I told myself it was for Rick. That it was because I’d wanted to spare him the pain of knowing what Harper was capable of and what she’d done. Not that it had mattered. He’d known I was lying, anyway.
Unfortunately, I wasn’t exactly sure how accurate my thoughts about my motivations were.
After all I’d done for her, after how I’d protected her from the school as well as from Rick, I had to assume I was just weak. My heart foolishly wanted her to love me and want me in her life, so I caved again in hopes she would.
As I laid in bed—tossing, turning, and groaning—I hated her. I hated her just as much as I did the night before, but it’d had time to fester and grow. She needed to stay far away from me until I worked through this.IfI could work through this. Deep down, I wasn’t sure if anything had really changed, but in that moment, I felt enough fury I could probably have choked the life out of her with my bare hands and not thought twice about it.
A faint knock sounded at the door, and I growled.Of course, someone would want to come fucking visit. It’s probably some friend of Becky’s or Melinda’s wanting to have achat—by which I mean kill me and dump my body in a sewage drain somewhere.Finish off the job. Then again, I was staying in Justin’s apartment, so it might have been one of his friends.
As I walked through the living room, I pulled my phone from the pajama pants Justin let me borrow. It was early afternoon, which meant anyone who would have visited Justin should have been in class—just as he should.
I opened the door and immediately slammed it again. “Nope!” I shouted before turning to walk away.
“Temperance, please,” Asher called back. “We wanted to check on you and talk to you.”
My hands balled into fists. I turned and stomped back over to the door before opening it. I looked at Asher. “You’re a shit sucking asshole, and I hate you. You can fuck all the way off. You and yoursireare the reason this shit happened to me. Because you pissed off”—I pointed over at Harper—“thatlittle troll right there by making her jealous.” I looked at Harper. “And what thefuckhappened to you? You look like you got attacked by a squid.”
Her reddened eyes squinted at me as her brows furrowed in confusion. “Huh?”
I pointed at the black streaks down her face. “Squids have ink, and you… Fuck it. Nevermind. Fuck you, too. I hope you’re both as pleased with this conversation as I am. Been lovely. I learnedsomuch. Very cathartic. Tata.”
I turned and tried to walk inside again, but Asher slammed a giant hand on the door to keep it open.
“Temperance, please.” He sighed. “We both fucked up. Please, just hear us out.”