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had stolen Thomas Always-up-for-a-Good-Time Pearson away from them. Ariana swallowed that bitter pill and shoved it aside.
And then, the moment she had been dreading. Her parents' arrival.
Ariana took a deep breath. Silently let the tears come. Her father carried her urn, his eyes steadfastly trained straight ahead as he supported her mother with his other arm. Support that she needed, bent and sobbing as she was. Her blond hair had gone white, wispy, and thin and was piled atop her head. The black barrette that held it there was barely clinging to what little it had to cling to. As they reached the center of the park where everyone was gathered, her mother let out a loud sob that sent whispers through the crowd.
It broke Ariana's heart.
I have to see this, she told herself, fighting the urge to turn back to her car and drive away from it all. I have to see this if I'm really going to start over.Ariana's father handed her mother's arm over to her uncle James, then stood before the gathering with the urn. From the distance, Ariana couldn't hear what he was saying. She took a few tentative steps toward the back of the crowd, longing to hear her father's voice, to know what his parting words to her might be. It was dangerous, she knew, but how could she resist? It was a natural curiosity. Not everyone got to attend their own funeral.
She was about thirty yards from the back of the crowd, telling herself she should stop now, when her cell phone let out a loud, obnoxious beep.
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There were a few annoyed whispers as people looked around to see who would be so rude as to not silence her phone at a funeral. Ariana cursed herself for not having locked up her purse, or at least turned off her phone. She fumbled for the phone and silenced it with the touch of a button. She quickly turned around, but not before she saw Dr. Meloni at the back of the crowd, turning her way.
"Shit," Ariana said under her breath. What was he doing here? She had read that, once her body had been found, he had been fired from the Brenda T. for his apparent role in her suicide--right after the warden had been canned for running a prison from which two teenagers had been able to escape within two months. How could Meloni have the audacity to show up at her funeral after that? More important, had he seen her?
Ariana quickly strode away. With every step she could feel Dr. Meloni bearing down on her. His breath on her neck. His hand just millimeters from her shoulder. It was over. He had seen her. She was done. Three steps from the edge of the park, Ariana couldn't take it anymore. She took a deep breath and turned around.
But there was no one there.
She scanned the mourners for Dr. Meloni but couldn't pick him out from all the other black-suited men. She had been spared.
Lesson learned.
Safely behind the wheel of her car, she turned her phone on again. Her hand shook as she looked down at the screen, knowing exactly what she would find. A text from Hudson. He had texted her dozens of times since his first message on the day her body had been found.
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She hadn't responded to a single message, but that hadn't stopped him. This one, however, made her blood run cold.
Fine. U don't want to reply, I'll just come see u. On my way to Easton now. See u soon.--H
Ariana grabbed her arm and squeezed. This was not good. Hudson was coming to Easton. He would go to the school and find out that not only was Emma Walsh not currently enrolled, but she never had been. What would he do next? Would he give up and go home, or would he try to track her down? Find the actual Emma Walsh from Chicago who had gone to school with Dana Dover from Camp Potowamac and learn that she was actually some middle-class chub who had never even heard of Easton?
And if he did al
l that, what would Ariana be forced to do in return?
Ariana swallowed a hard lump in her throat and tossed the phone onto the passenger seat. She couldn't think about that now. The best thing she could do for herself and for Hudson was put as much distance between herself and Easton, Connecticut, as possible. There would be no more visits to her past. Visits to her past were obviously too dangerous. From now on, Ariana's focus was on the future. With one last parting glance at her former friends, her former family, her former world, Ariana pulled her car into traffic and never looked back.
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THE BEGINNING
It all starts here.Ariana paused outside the imposing iron gates. Paused and took a deep, satisfying breath. She closed her eyes and let it all soak in. The clean, fresh air. The cool breeze carrying the slightly musky scent of the oncoming autumn. The popping of luxury car doors and the shouts of students greeting one another after a long summer apart.
It all starts here.
Ariana turned and slid the package out from under her arm. She looked over the handwriting on the slip, satisfied that it was indistinguishable from Briana Leigh's. All that practicing on the veranda at the Philmore had done the trick. Teo would never know that the breakup letter was not from his betrothed. Would never suspect the format in which it arrived, since the two of them had been writing real letters to one another since the beginning of their romance. She hoped the ring she had nestled inside would arrive safely and that he would find
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some worthy girl to give it to someday. Placing the package carefully into the FedEx box on the sidewalk next to the gates, she took a deep breath. Briana Leigh's ties were officially cut. It was up to Ariana now to decide who Briana Leigh Covington would become. This last task finally completed, she shook her hair back from her face, grasped the handle of her rolling Louis Vuitton trunk, and strode through the gates onto the campus of Atherton-Pryce Hall.
Breathless with anticipation, Ariana nevertheless managed to keep her gait to a stroll, to take it all in. The low, redbrick buildings with the arched, multipaned windows gleaming in the sun. The cherry trees lining the walkways, which would no doubt burst forth with big, beautiful blossoms in the spring. The cocky boys, already clad in their blue blazers and gray slacks as they slapped hands with one another on the lawn. The huge fountain at the center of campus, bubbling happily as underclassmen gathered around to check their schedules against one another's or gossip about who hooked up with whom over the summer.