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Even though he had known Annie longer, was Hollis’s best friend. She got him in every way there was to get someone. They just clicked.

was tall and very dark, like a supermodel. Eyes slender and lionlike, a jaw sharp and glamorous. She dressed like she was going to a casting and didn’t let the stares stop her. She took to farm culture in furs and thigh-high tights. The only reason wasn’t the most popular girl in school automatically was because she was the kind of New York chic that small-town people didn’t like. Plus, her and her family were the only Nigerian immigrants for miles around.

A trust fund angel like her shouldn’t even be in a podunk place like this.

Her pa was a real estate developer who moved their family to town to work on a nearby housing development. They were supposed to have stayed for just a year, but the project was taking longer. All projects near Rose Town did.

So here she was, three years in. Trapped with the rest of them.