I still can’t believe that this is happening to me. I can’t believe their lies. These societies want to destroy our school. They want to go back to the days of Pemberly and Brown. They want to separate me from the person I love the most.
I think about that when Cameron holds my hand. I love him. I can’t lose him. We shouldn’t have to lose people we love because of some stupid society. It’s time to take action. It’s time to destroy the societies for good. And anyone who’s not with me, they’re against me.
It was wrong. All wrong. There was no way Grace had written that. I looked closer at her Ls and Ys, at the angle of the words, and I closed my eyes, imagining the entries I had smoothed into my own notebook at home. Something didn’t add up. Grace’s feelings for Cameron would never have been expressed in this way. The paper was forged.
But why would someone go to the trouble of sending me Grace’s actual journal entries only to lead up to one that’s so clearly fake?
My eyes snapped up to Porter.
It’s time to destroy the societies for good.
“Hey, I think you missed the turn…” The words came out in a hoarse whisper, and his only response was to push harder on the gas pedal. My body jolted back in the seat, and I felt the panic wind its way around my chest like a straitjacket.
“Porter? It’s late and you’re right, we really do need to talk, but maybe in the morning after I’ve had the chance to process…”
He jerked the steering wheel all the way to the right, taking a turn so fast that I was sure the tiny car would flip over. Something was wrong. So, so, so wrong. But it wasn’t until I started to recognize the houses that I realized how wrong. It wasn’t until we pulled into Grace’s driveway that I stopped breathing. And it wasn’t until I saw the soft glow from behind Grace’s old window that everything went black. Grace’s parents had moved away after the holidays, back to family, away from this broken town. The house sat dark and empty. Until now.