“You won’t tell.” Hailey crouched beside me again, reaching over and patting my head twice. “You won’t tell because you won’t be here to tell. I’m sorry it’s come to this, but it’s my turn now.” She tilted her head. “Dad and I are thick as thieves. Who would have thought my obsession with secret societies would have led to this?”
“I have to give him credit though, he wasn’t so forthcoming at first, but when he saw that I knew about the sugar daddy ring and had proof of his affair with Lana, well, he had to give in. After all, I could expose the others easily. Did you know he’s visited me every week since? He’s been in town so many times and he never once called you to meet up with him. How does that make you feel?”
My chest tightened. I took a few deep breaths, trying to dictate to my lungs what to do in order to ease the feeling.
“If he’s really your father, you should have a relationship with him,” I said finally, licking my lips and focusing on breathing.
“He is my father,” she screamed. “And we do have a relationship. Better than yours.”
“Hailey, she’s not breathing right,” Lana said, dropping to the ground beside us. “What did you do to her?”
“Do you want to go back home or not?” Hailey shouted, turning to look at Lana.
“You promised you’d let me go,” Lana yelled back, tears streaming down her face. “You promised!”
“I didn’t promise anything,” Hailey shouted.
“You promised,” Lana whimpered.
I coughed again, turning over on my side as I struggled to bring more air into my lungs. It was too much information to handle. What was Ella’s role in all of this? Did she know her daughter was a psycho? As I coughed, the side of my head where I’d been hit touched the ground, and I groaned in pain.
“I don’t like this,” Lana said quietly. “You should just take her to Deacon’s. Get Felipe’s attention like that, how you did with me.”
“This is a different scenario from yours, dumb ass,” Hailey said. “I wanted you as bait. I want her to suffer.”
Lana was silent for a beat. “She’s going to get her wound infected if she keeps her head like that.”
“What will it matter if she’s dead?”
“You would really kill your own sister?” Lana whispered. “Think this through, Hailey.”
“I have thought this through,” Hailey shouted. “I almost, almost convinced myself not to do it, but then she said she was going to the police with incriminating information on our father and I knew I’d been right all along. She doesn’t care about him. Dad will thank me for this. He’ll understand I did the right thing. He doesn’t need his own children betraying him.”
“Other people know too,” Lana said, her voice sounded like a plea. “You can’t kill every single one of them just because you want a relationship with a man who’s not willing to give himself freely.”
“Pot meet kettle.” Hailey snorted.
“That’s why I’m saying it. If anyone knows this plan of yours is impossible, it’s me.”
“You know what? I don’t fucking care.”
“Think this through, Hailey. Are you going to be able to live with the guilt of killing your sister?”
“Shut up, Lana. Shut up.” Hailey stood up and glared down at her. “If he doesn’t pay attention to me once she’s gone, fine, but he won’t have her either.”
“What about Becca?” I asked.
“Becca isn’t his. Leave her out of it.” Hailey glanced at me over her shoulder, then up. “Deacon, where’s the special water?”
Deacon didn’t respond, but Hailey got up and started rummaging a bag nearby. She walked over to Lana and handed her one of the bottles of water in her hand. The rope around Lana’s wrists was definitely looser than mine, she was able to hold it between her hands perfectly.
“Drink.”
“I don’t want to,” Lana whispered.
“Drink it or I’ll have Deacon make you.”
Lana’s eyes widened. She twisted the cap off and drank the water. I imagined it was drugged. It was obviously how they’d kept her compliant all this time. Hailey came up to me with a water bottle.
“Open your mouth.”
I clamped it shut, twisting my head in the other direction.
“Trust me, you’re going to want this. It’ll help with the pain and everything else. I’m trying to be a good sister.”
I made a sound. I didn’t want her calling herself my sister.
“Fine. Half-sister,” she said, as if that made it any better.
I kept my mouth shut and my face moving away from the water bottle in her hand. I knew it wouldn’t go on forever. Sooner or later, she’d force me to drink it. Tears trickled down my cheeks. This was it? This was the end for me? Surrounded by three people I meant nothing to? I thought of Logan, of the call he promised and how I’d miss it. I’d miss hearing his voice and seeing him when he got back. I’d miss his warmth and his sweet thoughts about our future. I’d miss his career and his other accomplishments. Hailey reached over and started trying to force my mouth open.
“This would be easier if you cooperate.”
I kicked again. “Lana. Please help me.”
“I can’t.” She swayed, stumbling on her feet before she hit the ground with a thump.
I gasped, feeling the last ounce of hope I had vanish. Hailey started to pour the water over my closed mouth, her other hand still working on prying it open. I wasn’t sure whether or not she was successful, but I started to taste chalk in my mouth. I turned over to cough, my chest still tight. It seemed to take a while for me to pass out, I could still hear movement, hear Hailey bossing Deacon around while he freaked out over something he couldn’t quite verbalize. My eyes drifted shut despite my attempt to keep them open, the world around me spinning beneath my eyelids.
Then, I only saw darkness.
Chapter 44
Logan
My knee bounced incessantly as I waited for the police officer to finish up his notes. She glanced up from her computer, looking at me over her reading glasses.
“This is what I have so far. You spoke to her on the phone at five o’clock on Sunday. You don’t know where she was headed. You told her you’d call that night, and when you called she never answered, so you tried again, but you figured she was sleeping so you left her alone,” she said, reciting what I’d just told her. “You got home Monday, this morning, at eight o’clock, went straight to her apartment, and she wasn’t home. You called and she didn’t answer, you went to her classes but she wasn’t there, so you went to the coffee shop she frequents and asked her friend Hailey Valentine if she’d seen her, and she said no. You went to the newspaper and asked Max Stein, and he also said no. Ella Valentine told you she’d emailed with her Sunday morning about a potential story and hadn’t heard back from her.” Officer Wright took off her glasses and set them on her desk. “Did you try calling her parents?”