Page 123 of Good Girls Lie

Damien killed my mother. No one else.

But little did she know it was Ashlyn who was the real danger, all along.

Think. Think!

None of the plans I’ve been working include the real Ashlyn ever showing up in Marchburg. Now that she’s here and dancing on the edge, I have to reboot everything. Everything.

“You have to give me some time. I can work this, but it’s going to be tricky.”

The fever light gleams in her eyes. “You have twenty-four hours. I need to get out of this shit town. I don’t know how you can stand it.”

“You have to give me more than a day. I have to—”

She has a hand ripping my hair back and the knife at my throat so fast I don’t even have time to blink.

“Listen to me, you stupid, hapless twat. Twenty-four hours, or I will blow up your entire world and dance on the ashes. You’ll have the distraction you need.”

She lets me go and disappears into the forest, leaving me alone with the graves and trembling hands. I sink to my knees, the past few months parading through my brain. I should have known better.

What am I going to do?

I’m going to run.

72

THE CONVINCING

I’ve convinced her. I can see it in her eyes. Even as she scurries away, back through the tunnel into the school, she is already plotting.

She’s going to find a way, she always does. Alexandria is the brains of the family. She is going to find us a path out like she found us a path in, and I will have my fortunes restored. Once that happens, she can go on living whatever life she wants. I have no reason to kill her.

Well, none good enough. Not yet.

She is the one who most resembles Damien. She has his face and brains, yes, but she’s been gifted with his ability to manipulate, too.

I make my way back to the abandoned cabin I’ve been sleeping in. It has a tunnel directly into the school, like most I’ve managed to sneak into, which makes it so easy to enter after dark, once everyone is asleep, and creep, creep, creep around. Did you know the dean leaves her safe unlocked? What an idiot. Probably can’t remember her combination.

I’m telling you, while the school itself is okay, Marchburg is a shit of a town. Who would want to live here? There’s nothing to do. The only thing it has going for it is a view, but hell, you can get a view off a cliff in Italy. Why would you saddle yourself to a stupid little nothing town in the Blue Ridge Mountains?

Alex wanted this. She wanted it so badly I couldn’t resist trying to make her dreams come true. But she’s changed. She’s no longer the sweet, adorable little Lexie who would do anything for me growing up. Now she’s my sister, my flesh and blood. She’s complicit. She knows the truth, all of it. And she has a power that I don’t—the power of altering records. That changes everything.

Everything.

I had to come. I had to have her make this right.

But before I handle Alexandria, I need to deal with that bitch who’s been hurting my sister.

73

THE EXIT

Ford hasn’t been back in the Westhaven family house for a few months. Her mother’s omnipresence is clear and literal, she’s left dishes in the sink and newspapers on the table. Happily, Jude has retreated from the scene. Ford received a breezy text from her earlier:

Heading north to DC today for an emergency alumni meeting, sorry to miss you. I’ll be back this weekend for the Odds and Evens celebrations, assuming I’m still welcome. Be in touch if you decide you need my help sooner.

Like that will happen. Jude’shelpis why she’s in this mess with the school, and with Rumi.

Fretting about Jude will accomplish nothing. Ford needs a plan. But she wants Rumi’s input first.