“You have way more friends than I do, though.”
“But I don’t have a best friend like Emma. You two are as tight as thieves. You’ve always been so close. You share everything together, and she’ll always be there for you. I have no one to call. No one. I don’t have those sorts of friendships. No one cares about me the way that you and Emma care about each other.
“But you’re always hanging out with all those girls.”
“We go shopping. We gossip and talk about clothes and stupid shit. But no one’s really there for me. You’re living the life I could only dream of living.”
“I am?”
“You are. I’ve always been jealous of you. You’ve always been the Spellman sister who is living life to the max, doing whatever she wants to do, and it’s successful and amazing.”
“You have a house and a husband. You have a new Mercedes G-Wagon. You’re going to Tahiti. You’re?—”
“Those are material things. You have the things that really matter, Gina.”
“But you’ve always told me that I’m jealous of you. You’ve always?—”
“I’m sorry. I’ve been a shitty-ass sister, and I know I’m asking a lot, but I love you, and I respect you. And I just really need you right now.”
“Okay. I’m coming. Send me your location, and I’ll be there.” I hang up, trying to process everything she’s just told me. I’m still in shock. She was jealous of me when she had everything. But it’s true. Emma and I have a really special friendship, and I guess if I think about it, my sister has never really had one good friend as close as Emma and me. But still, she had literally everything else.
Maybe she was just projecting, I think to myself. Maybe I do have things that she’s never had. Shit. Then I think about Amethyst, and I think about Hunter, and I think about the fact that he knows that I’m a reporter and that I hadn’t told him.
I don’t know what to do. I stare at Amethyst, who’s still standing there.
“You must probably hate me,” she says.
“Why did you do it? Why didn’t you let me?—”
“Because you can’t write a story about him having cancer. That crosses far too many lines.”
“What are you talking about?”
“I saw your notepad in the study. The different headlines. His cancer.”
“I didn’t have a headline saying anything about his cancer.”
“But it was on the page.” She shrugs. “I may not be a part of this family, but Hunter matters to me. And that’s crossing a line.”
“I wasn’t going to write an article about him. I was going to tell him I was a journalist. I was going to lose my job because of this, and I was okay with it. You ruined everything, Amethyst.”
“Did I? Or did you ruin it?” I stare at her for a couple of seconds and then rush out of the library. I have nothing else to say to her. And the fact of the matter is, I’m not even that madat her. She had her own comeuppance coming with whatever the Waverlys decide to do about the necklace. There have been so many times when I’ve wanted to tell Hunter, and I just didn’t. And I should have. And now she has done it.
I want to go to him. I want to explain. I need to speak to him.
But my sister needs me, and I have to be there for her, even though she’s made me feel like shit about my life for so many years. She is still my sister, and she is still hurting.
“Amethyst, before I go, I need to warn you about Patrick. He’s not a great guy. I know you think that he’s supportive, but he’s not. He was using you.”
“You mean like you were using Hunter?”
“I wasn’t using him, but let’s say that I was, you would think I was a horrible person, right?”
“Yes.”
“So then if you think he’s like me, then wouldn’t that make him a horrible person as well? Would you have stolen it, if not encouraged by him?”
She stares at me, lips thin and I know she’s thinking about what I’ve just said. Even if she’s kooky, she’s not delusional, she has to know that Patrick is a bad guy.
