MADDIE
“Let me know when you want me to bring you home,” Blaise offered.
I sat in Vera and Blaise’s apartment and stared emptily out the window. I had gone to the funeral with Alec, but he had left, so I hadn’t had a ride back home. And honestly, I understood the reasons for him leaving. I would’ve, too, if that had happened to me. He had seemed so distraught, and I wanted to give him space.
“Thanks,” I whispered, grasping on to one of their pillows and clutching it to my chest.
Vera sat beside me with her head on my shoulder and her body trembling. She had kept it together for most of the service, but it seemed to actually hit her now. Piper might’ve betrayed us, but we had been best friends for over a year now.
Even if she had felt bad about what had happened and if what Nicole had said was true, she hadn’t had to commit suicide. We didn’t hate her that much. She could’ve gone to therapy and worked on herself or even asked one of us for help to get out of the situation that she had been trapped in.
Guilt rushed through me. As her friend, I should’ve seen the warning signs.
But everything had seemed so perfect with her. Sure, she might’ve been at home a lot or with her father, but she always had a believable excuse. I hadn’t even thought that anything could possibly be wrong.
Someone knocked at the door, and Blaise answered it. Nicole, Imani, Allie, and Jace walked into the apartment, all the girls teary-eyed, but not as badly as we were. But still, them going to the funeral and then coming here afterward meant the world to me.
“How’re you holding up?” Allie asked, sitting on the couch across from us.
“Why did she do it?” Vera sobbed suddenly, clutching on to me tighter. “I don’t understand. She hid this from us for so long. Didn’t she think that we would help her out the best that we could?!” She bundled her dress up into her fists and shook her head. “W-why?”
Nicole frowned and sat on the ground at Vera’s feet, gently squeezing her knee, as Imani took a seat next to Allie, and Jace lingered near the kitchen with Blaise. Nobody could answer her question for many reasons.
But I had the same thoughts, the same questions and doubts. How could she have done such a thing? It was selfish. So selfish. And I didn’t forgive her for it. Though I understood why she had done it, I still didn’t agree with it.
The room filled with Vera’s sobbing until Blaise finally came over and pulled her into his arms. She grasped on to him with everything she had, and part of me wished that Alec had stayed around so he could do the same with me.
“Did you notice that Piper’s father wasn’t there?” Nicole asked, breaking the silence.
“That’s his own daughter,” Allie whispered. “How could he not show up?”
Jace glanced at Blaise, who grimaced. Vera shook her head, as if she knew what they were thinking. And honestly, I thought we all knew what they were suggesting had really happened. But nobody wanted to say it out loud and make it real.
“Do you think she actually killed herself?” Imani finally asked.
Nobody spoke a word.
“I can find out,” Nicole said after a long pause.
“How’re you going to do that?” Allie asked.
Nicole’s gaze faltered for a moment, and then she swallowed. “Don’t worry about it.”
Allie sat up and shook her head. “Whatever you’re thinking, don’t do it.”
While I didn’t know the extent of what Nicole had done or been through, she had mentioned that she was part of the ring and pimping that the police did with girls at Redwood Academy. And her father was the police chief. She had to have done some … shit.
“It’s the only way to know,” Nicole said, straightening her back. “I’ll do it.”
“At what cost?” Allie asked. “I refuse to let you end up like her.”
“Allie, it’s fine,” Nicole reassured her. “I won’t end up like her.”
I cleared my throat. “How’re you going to do it?”
Nicole dropped her gaze. “My father … likes me. Not in a way that a father should. He’s trained me to get information out of important people at Redwood. Who says I can’t use that against him? That I can’t get the same information out of him?”
Tension sat heavily in the air. She didn’t have to explain any more for us to understand.
“You don’t have to do that,” I said.
After standing, Nicole shook her head. “My mind is already made up. If her own father killed her to hide something, then we need to find out what it is, and we need to take care of them all before something happens to another one of us.”