“Cut the crap,” Zeke tells her. “The cameras aren’t rolling. What do you want?”
Anna shivers beside me.
“Assurances,” Addison demands.
Zeke looks to Anna and then me. “Take her inside, okay? I’ll deal with this.”
I give Addison a sour look. “Guess you got home early from your date. Must not have gone very well.”
Her mouth curls into a grin. “Oh, I think I got here just in time.”
Last night, I stayed in Anna’s room until she fell asleep. I definitely missed out on precious walkie-talkie time, but I couldn’t abandon Anna. According to her, she fell hard for Zeke when she and Drew were doing their preshow interviews. She made the first move that day by slipping him her number. They texted day and night for the week leading up to production, and she planned on backing out of the show, but she could never find the right time. She had hoped to get sent home the first night, but instead it was Drew who was sent home before both of us. It wasn’t getting sent home that Anna was worried about. It was Zeke losing his job for cozying up to a contestant.
I brushed her hair and rubbed her back, and had every intention of talking to Addison before she went to bed, but by the time I left Anna, every light in the house was off.
In the morning, Anna is crouched beside my bed waiting for me. I gasp at the sight of her chin resting on my mattress just inches from my face.
“I have to tell Henry,” she says.
I sit up slowly, propping myself up on my elbows, and look around for Stacy or Sara Claire, but they’re both already up and gone. “Wait, wait, shouldn’t you talk to Zeke first? At least find out what he promised Addison?”
She shakes her head. “It won’t be anything he can actually deliver on. He’s a junior producer,” she whispers. “He can’t even get craft services to remember that he has a nut allergy. Addison will figure that out soon enough and she’ll rat him out. If I send myself home, she loses all the power. You have to help me find Henry.”
I sit up completely, my head spinning a little from waking up too quickly. “Okay, give me a minute to get dressed, and then we’ll figure it out.”
She sits there on the floor, her whole body slumped as I put on a pair of frayed denim shorts and a T-shirt that reads I DONUT CARE ABOUT YOUR DIET.
We walk downstairs and manage to sneak out the back door and down the path to where the guesthouse is.
In the light of day, the guesthouse is covered in vines and has a beautiful rose garden just outside the window. I knock on the arched door with a bronze doorknob in the center.
“How do you know where he’s staying?” Anna asks as she peers over my shoulder.
“Does that matter?”
“Uh, yeah, actually, it does. I guess I’m not the only sister with secrets.”
I roll my eyes. “Trust me. My secrets aren’t nearly as salacious as yours.”
When I try knocking again and there’s no answer, I turn the doorknob, which is unlocked.
“Do we just go in?” Anna asks warily.
“Do you want to beat Addison to the chase or not?”
She nods, and I swing the door open, but it’s totally empty. No one. Nothing. The bed has been stripped of all of its sheets, and every sign of Henry from his suitcases to his cologne to his notebook is gone.
“Maybe they moved him,” Anna says as we trek back up to the house.
“I guess so,” I say.
“There they are!” Jenny calls from the balcony. “Come on! Hurry up! They just announced an elimination ceremony.”
“Right now?” I yell back.
“Yes!”
“Aren’t we supposed to have another one of those balls?” Anna asks.
I take her hand and we run the rest of the way through the grounds and into the house.
Beck is in the foyer, shuttling girls out to the front of the house. “Move it, move it, move it.”
“Where’s Zeke?” Anna asks her immediately.
Beck just shakes her head. “Do I look like a lost and found? Come on. Move it.”
“That’s good,” I whisper to Anna. “If Beck doesn’t know, then Addison probably hasn’t spilled to anyone yet.”
Anna looks around nervously, but everyone is already lined up, so I lead her to a spot on the stairs and take the one just behind her. Everyone else has had a chance to change into something sort of cute, but I’m still rocking my just-rolled-out-of-bed hair, cutoffs, and T-shirt.
Once we’re all set, a limo drives up the hill and Chad and Henry step out.
“Ladies,” Chad says, “I know you were all expecting a ball this evening, but Henry has made his decision and he’s got some out-of-town business to attend to, so we’re doing things a little out of order today.”
“I’m sorry we won’t be having our ball this evening,” Henry tells us. “But yesterday made my decision very clear.” He swallows. “Cindy, will you accept this scroll?”
I nod and take the steps down, squeezing Anna’s hand along the way. I’m shocked that Addison wasn’t first after their date last night, but I’ll take it.
As he places the scroll in the palm of my hand, I say, “Maybe I’ll finally score that date.”
He gives me an unreadable smile that only makes me feel unsettled.
He calls more names—Sara Claire, Jenny, Stacy, Gretchen, Valerie, Chloe—until all that’s left is one scroll and Addison, Anna, and Samantha still standing.
“Well, this is a plot twist I didn’t see coming,” Sara Claire muses.
Henry plucks the single scroll from the pillar beside him. “I hate this part,” he says. “But I think spending time with someone can not only reveal who—”
“Henry,” says Addison, her voice more frantic than I thought possible. “I have to tell you something.”
I give her an infuriated look, nostrils flared, that I hope says, I hope every zipper you ever zip breaks.
Henry looks to Chad, who nods.
“Can we talk privately?” Addison asks.
Anna steps forward. “No. No, you can’t. Because I have something to say, and I want to say it right here in front of everyone.”
“Anna, no,” I whisper.
“I have feelings for someone else,” she declares dramatically. “I’m sorry, Henry. I know we’ve only started to get to know each other, but I can’t stand the thought of deceiving you.”
With all eyes on her, I can’t say my stepsister isn’t enjoying this.
Valerie lets out a low whistle. “This is like telenovela levels of intense.”
Addison crosses her arms with a loud huff, while still trying to appear shocked.
“You have feelings for someone else?” Henry asks.
Anna nods. “I thought it would fade after meeting you…but now I miss him…and I’m so sorry, Henry, but my heart’s just not in it.”
He takes her hand, the tension in his forehead easing a bit. “Thank you for being honest.”
“So I guess this is it?” she asks.
He nods and holds up the scroll. “You mind if I give this thing out real fast?”
She stumbles back clumsily and takes her place back on the steps between Addison and Samantha, both of whom look like they’ve seen a ghost. “Oh, right, of course.”