Although it had been so long since I had seen her and my recollections of her were understandably vague, studying her pictures in the closet whenever I could sneak in and the resemblance she had to Mama made it easy for me to recognize her instantly. Both of us had Mama’s petite facial features and Mama’s color hair. Her posture and her walk also reminded me of Mama. She was taller than I had expected her to be, but Papa was a tall man.

“Wow. She is beautiful,” Chastity said softly.

I almost didn’t hear her. Amazingly, I felt pride. For the moment, at least, I didn’t think of Roxy as being a woman for hire. She was instead this stunning young woman who walked with great self-confidence, looking forward and seemingly unaware of all the men who turned her way or passed her on the sidewalk but left their eyes behind.

“Let’s follow her,” Chastity suggested.

I paused. “Follow her?”

“Let’s see where she’s going. Maybe she’s going to meet a man. C’mon,” she said, speeding ahead.

“Wait.”

She stopped, her hands on her hips. “What? This is what we came here to do, isn’t it?”

“Yes, but . . . let’s stay far enough behind. I don’t want her to see me following her,” I said.

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She looked after Roxy. “We’re far enough now. C’mon.”

I joined her, and we crossed the street. Roxy was a good half-block ahead of us, but I was walking too slowly for Chastity.

“We’ll lose her if she turns or something,” she said.

I sped up, and a few minutes later, we saw Roxy cross the street and go into a boutique. I wanted to keep walking. Maybe this was enough for today, I thought, but Chastity stepped off the sidewalk and started across before I could say anything. I hurriedly followed her, and we approached the shop.

“We’ll just walk by and glance in,” Chastity said. She was really enjoying this. I almost didn’t matter. Again, before I could respond, she charged forward. I stepped up alongside her, realizing that I could use her body to block myself from view. When we reached the shop, even though I was very nervous about it, I looked in and saw that Roxy was looking over a dress the saleslady had handed her. We hesitated and saw Roxy go into a dressing room.

“I bet this place is very expensive,” Chastity said, remaining at the door.

“Let’s go before she sees us spying on her.”

“Wait. I want to see what she looks like in the dress.”

“But . . .”

“Stop worrying so much. She won’t see us. She certainly doesn’t expect you to be here, right?”

“Yes.”

“So let’s pretend we’re interested in what they have in the window. C’mon,” she urged when I hesitated.

I joined her, and we were able to look past the mannequins and see Roxy come out of the dressing room wearing a beautiful low-cut black evening dress. It seemed made for her, and when I looked closer in the window, I saw that the clothes in the shop were indeed fitted and made to order. I nodded at the sign to point it out to Chastity.

“Wow. That dress must cost thousands.”

“Maybe,” I said. “Probably.”

Roxy looked happy with it and went in to change back into her other clothes.

“Let’s cross the street before she comes out,” I said.

Chastity nodded, gazed longingly at a dress on one of the mannequins, and followed me. She was looking down all the way. I could feel her depression.

“You could lose weight and get into one of those dresses someday, Chas,” I said.

“Yeah, sure,” she said, but looked helpless.

Tags: V.C. Andrews The Forbidden Horror
Source: readsnovelonline.net