Did I have the strength to move on and find my happy moments with someone else? Could I let him go?

“Um, meerkats? Yeah, not so cute and cuddly.

Have you seen the nasty things they eat?

I bypass them at the zoo . . . freakish little things.”

–Nora Blakely (shuddering)

A FEW DAYS later, I arrived at the gym for my first day on the job. Leo let me in after I buzzed the bell since the gym hadn’t officially opened yet for the public. He sat down with me and explained the requirements and gave me several shirts with Club Vita’s logo on them. He informed me he was going to pay me twenty dollars an hour, which I thought was ridiculously too much, but he insisted. My schedule would be three days a week from one o’clock until four, which would put me at close to one-hundred eighty dollars a week before taxes. I did the math and figured I’d have a small nest egg saved by the time college started.

He left me to work in his private office, so I settled in at the front desk, getting familiar with the computer and the list Leo had left for me to do.

As Sebastian let himself in the door from school, my phone buzzed. I looked down to see Finn had left me another text, but thankfully no picture. He’d been bombarding me with emails and texts all week. Usually I deleted them without reading, but this time, I needed to know what he was thinking. I suspected he was growing desperate, and it scared me.

I didn’t feel safe.

-- Call me. This is your last warning, sister. If you don’t answer...

I stared at it for a long time, trying to understand why he was like he was. I came up with nothing except that we’d both been raised by Mother.

“Nora?” Sebastian asked, sitting down beside me. “What’s wrong?”

“Read a text from Finn,” I said, gesturing at my phone. “Stupid. I shouldn’t have.”

“He’s not going to bother you here,” he said, resting his hand on my back.

I shook my head, thinking how naïve he was. “Haven’t you ever watched a horror movie? The bad guy always comes back for the girl. And he pops out of nowhere just when you least expect it.”

“But the good guys win in the end.”

I chewed on my lip uncertainly. “His messages are coming more often. I think he’s finally lost it. I mean, he’s moving back home. He hated it there as much as I did. Mother was horrible to us both.”

“Damn it, Nora, tell Leo. He’ll put a stop to it, trust me.”

“No,” I said, turning back to the computer.

Sebastian grunted angrily, but I ignored him.

As we worked, Tiffani buzzed and Sebastian let her in. She breezed through the door, dressed in another designer workout outfit. Her top was bright pink and cropped, showing off her spray tan and slim waist. The matching pants were glued to her short legs.

She stopped at the desk and stood there, moving from one foot to the next. I sat there pretending to type life-threatening membership information in the computer.

“How was BA today?” she asked, her eyes darting between Sebastian and myself.

“It was great, thanks for asking,” Sebastian replied. “Are you here to work out?” he asked, glancing at her clothes. “Most of the machines are up and ready if you are.”

“Oh, that’s okay. I just finished a run at the park. I must look a mess,” she said with a tinkling laugh, smoothing down her perfect hair. Of course, she didn’t have a drop of sweat on her, and this was September in Texas.

“I just dropped by to see Leo. Is he around?” she asked Sebastian, flicking her eyes at me and smirking.

Sebastian said Leo was checking on the tennis court construction, so he’d text him. In a few minutes, Sebastian got a text back. “Uh, Tiffani, Leo says he’s in the middle of something right now, but he’ll meet you here in the lobby in half an hour.”

“Sure, tell him I’ll wait as long as he needs. It’s my day off. Um, Nora, I’d like to talk to you. Can we chat somewhere privately?” she asked sweetly, blinking her false eyelashes at me.

I fidgeted. “Sure,” I said, getting up out of my chair and leading the way to the band room.

I held the door open for her as she walked in, and as soon as the door shut, she said, “Stop whatever game you’re playing because Leo is mine.”

“I’m not playing a game,” I said. Did everyone know how I felt about Leo?

She went on. “I got news for you. I called your mother up last week and asked her to lunch, and when she heard I knew you, she couldn’t wait to meet me and fill me in.”

I let out a deep breath. Mother. When would I be free of her?

“Yeah, I thought that would get your attention,” she said, crossing her arms. “You know, I knew you were a snobby bitch who thought she was better than everyone else, but I never dreamed you’d be enough of a slut to screw your own brother.”

Deep shame rushed over me, and I wanted to run from the room and hide. She knew the truth; she knew how disgusting I was. But had Mother told her? I couldn’t believe she’d spill our dirty secrets, but how else would Tiffani know? I couldn’t see Finn admitting his crimes to some girl he’d never met, so it had to be true.

And if Mother told her it probably meant she was paving the way for Finn’s defense in case I went to the police. Was she spreading rumors about me to everyone I knew? Who was next?

I sat down.

“I’m going to tell Leo everything about you. About the drugs, about your brother.”

I stared out the window, imagining Leo’s face if he saw the pictures Finn had taken. Would he blame me for it all? Would the man I loved do that? My heart told me no, that he would never think badly of me because of what had happened. But my head wasn’t sure.

“Aren’t you going to say anything?” Tiffani said with a sneer.

I arched a brow at her. “You think you know the truth, but you don’t.”

She glared at me. “You’ll never get Leo. He may put on a big act about how tough he is,” she said, “but he loves me. He said so.”

Her words made me want to scream. She had to be lying.

I jumped up and paced around the room, feeling feral, like I wanted lash out and claw her pretty face. I calmed myself by taking deep breaths and running a list of new words through my head. Words that described her, such as: bird-brain, hobbit-chick, and slut.