Why hadn’t she considered that Whitney would do something as heinous as blackmail Marigold emotionally her entire life so she would always feel guilty no matter what choice she made? He had to have taken her twin at an early age, or Camellia would have remembered her. Her heart ached for Marigold and Briony too.
She couldn’t help herself. She went to Marigold and stretched both arms up, palms out, as they’d done since they were girls. Mari took her hands automatically. They stared into one another’s eyes.
He couldn’t break us, Mari. You held out and so did I. We swore he wouldn’t break us. Remember that? We made a promise to each other that we’d make it out, and we did.
Marigold nodded, tears running down her face. “We did, didn’t we?”
Camellia nodded as well. “Yes.” I don’t know if Ivy is really dead.
Marigold nodded again. I’ve wondered myself whether she was alive. I thought I just didn’t want to feel guilty.
I honestly don’t think she is dead. But if she is, it wasn’t you or me. It was Whitney. Her death is on him.
“I’m really sorry for everything, Camellia,” Marigold said out loud, her fingers closing around Camellia’s.
“There’s no need to be. I would have done exactly the same thing. At least we live close and will have time to catch up. You need rest.”
“But you’ll come back?” There was a hitch in Marigold’s voice.
“Yes, of course.” Camellia would have hugged her, but Mari was still too fragile, and she didn’t want to bruise her.
* * *
“Lydia,” Lily greeted. “How nice to see you. How have you been?”
“Good. Everything’s been good, Lily. It’s been such a good time for me. I’ve been seeing someone. I never really thought I’d find someone I’d really fall for, but he’s a doctor at the research center where Dr. Adams works.”
Lily walked beside Lydia Fenamore down the long hallway to the room where Lydia did most of the therapy work for each of the GhostWalkers. “Is he a brain surgeon?”
“Yes, a brilliant man. Dr. Adams thinks very highly of him,” Lydia gushed.
Lily unlocked the door and pushed it open. “Brandon Adams has been my friend for a very long time, Lydia. When things went south for us here, he was the first person I thought of to help us, and he came through. As a rule, Brandon is a great judge of character. To my knowledge, he’s only gotten it wrong once or twice. What does Jacob Abrams think of your new man?”
Lydia stiffened, stopping just inside the door. She turned to face Lily, moistening her suddenly dry mouth with her tongue several times. Her gaze jumped from Lily’s face to look over her shoulder to where Jonas and Gator lounged against the opposite wall. Inside the room, Ryland and Kaden waited.
“What’s going on, Lily?” Lydia whispered.
“You tell me, Lydia,” Lily asked. “No, don’t. I take that back. You tell them. They’ll know if you lie, and they won’t be nice about it. I won’t stay, because the methods they use to extract the truth from people who betray us aren’t exactly approved by the general population. I suggest you tell them whatever they want to know, although they know most of it already.”
She turned and walked down the hall without looking back.
Jonas thought she looked like a queen even with her slight limp. He gestured for Lydia to step all the way inside the soundproofed room.
“We won’t be disturbed in here. You can scream all you want, and you won’t upset any of the women or Daniel,” Jonas invited, his tone mild.
Lydia gasped and shook her head, but when he came up behind her, she stepped inside because he gave her no choice. Jonas entered the room. Gator followed him in and closed the door. The windows were blacked out on purpose so those inside had complete privacy.
“None of you scare me,” she declared, obviously terrified but determined to go on the attack first. “It was so easy to undermine all of you. You’re supposed to have this tight bond, but really, you don’t, do you? Ryland, you and your wife can’t even look at each other. She deceived you over your son, didn’t she? Went against your orders and recorded the things your son can do anyway,” she taunted.
Ryland smiled at her. “Clearly, you couldn’t access her records. If you had, you would have found all the things new mothers want to keep. First steps, first words. Photographs. Little videos of funny moments of the three of us. Daniel dancing, or more like wiggling. Nothing that any other mother wouldn’t keep. As for Lily and me, we fight like any couple, Lydia, and then we talk it out and make up. I trust her and she trusts me, so we work it out.”