My phone buzzes with more incoming messages, but I continue to ignore it. I don’t want to read anymore today. I keep my gaze out the window, watching the breeze blow the beautiful flowers in the gardens below. I’ve enjoyed sitting out there in the cool evenings, I bring a blanket with me and just let the silence calm me when I feel overwhelmed and that happens very little while in this home. They’re all big personalities who like to talk, a lot, and I love it, but sometimes it can be a little much. It’s not something that I’m used to but I know with time I’ll get used to it.
"You've got that look on your face again," Valentina says, and I look up at her. She’s smiling at me as she stands by the table, two cups in her hands. I wonder how long she was standing there watching me, while I was so lost in my own thoughts that I didn’t notice.
"What look?" I ask.
"The one where you're a million miles away," Valentina walks over and hands me a cup. "You're staring out the window pretending you're looking at the flowers when really you're thinking too much. What happened?”
I shake my head. No, I don’t want to get into this. "Nothing."
"Quinn," she says, her voice soft with concern. "You know you're terrible at pretending everything's fine, right?"
"I'm fine, Val."
She looks at my phone, face down on the table, and then she looks at me.
"Does this have anything to do with whoever keeps making your phone vibrate every five minutes?"
I glance at it and immediately look away.
"No."
“As I said, you’re a terrible liar, Quinn.” She takes a seat opposite me. “Please let me in,” she whispers.
I stare down at the phone on the table. "I don't even know where to start." I reach forward and pick up my cell phone and hand it to her.
Valentina takes it slowly, confusion flickering across her face before she looks at the screen. I watch as her eyes move across the screen and then her expression hardens. "What the fuck?"
A humorless laugh escapes me. "Yeah," I say with a wry smile.
She keeps scrolling, reading message after message, reading all the vile and despicable things my sister has been sending me, I’m glad that she can’t read the deleted ones, God knows what was said on those.
Valentina sets the phone down carefully, like she's afraid she'll throw it across the room if she holds it any longer. "How long has this been happening?"
I shrug because the answer is embarrassing. "Since the engagement was announced."
"And you didn't tell anyone?"
I laugh softly. "Tell who?"
Her face falls and I instantly regret my words. "Quinn..."
"It's fine."
"No," she says immediately. "It isn't."
"Daire's always been this way, Val. She’s always been a crazy bitch. We’ve known that. Now that I’m no longer in the house, she’s found a new way to get to me."
Silence stretches between us. When I finally look back at her, her jaw is clenched so tightly I can see the muscle jumping. "Has Lorenzo seen these?"
"No."
"Good."
I blink. "Good?" I didn’t expect her to say that.
"Because if he had, there'd be bodies in the garden."
Despite myself, I laugh. God, I needed this. I needed Val. "You're exaggerating."
