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"Ivy,"up my coat and disappear into Sloane’s bedrooht Her voice was poised and authoritative, her glassy green eyes narrowed and expectant "I expect you to put in soht You heard what Nix has planned for you He won’t want you hiding away You need to remind him and everyone else why he would pick you It’s not public knowledge yet, but when he makes his claim to you I don’t want there to be a shadow of a doubt for why he would pick you"

She leaned forward to straighten the neckline of my mandarin collared sheer shirt dress She brushed invisible lint off the shoulder and then adjusted it so that it layered over the dress-length slip underneath perfectly I willed ers and intense scrutiny

"Motone I desperately felt out ofto announce his intentions tonight"

"Don’t argue with me," she chastised immediately "And please, Nix’s affection for you has never been anything but coe Do you think anyone else could have pulled that little depression stunt last spring and gotten aith it?" Myrateful tonight Get your act together and give Nix what he wants"

"Yeslike a Stepford robot I knew there was no point arguing what ht froavea little too long on s like they were an eye sore And then she turned her back on ant rooned and furnished The house cost the same as our condo which could have reflected badly on Sloane’s s and paychecks But where Thalia had been frugal with the house she had n

The first floor of Sloane’s old diggers all vying for Nix’s desired attention Not that Nix would ever be an end all for these rich bitches, but he had his own char to these women… to every wo fe thee to vomit all over the antique ottoman to e, but the bitterness stayed fired in the back of my throat

I took one e point in the foyer, swearing to myself that I would never becoet swept away in the shallow-possession-coveted existence that poisoned them I lifted my chin in mild defiance and let the promise to myself weave a protective layer around my cynical, jaded soul, around my broken, malformed heart I was better than this I was better than this life

Nix caughted htly locked with mine, not even a head nod or incline of his chin But it was because of the subtlety of his authority that I felt the call to his, h ainst the intense desire to walk over to him His lips quirked into a perceptive s It was like ed hiaze and bounded upstairs and to the safety of Sloane’s room

"There she is," Exie squealed "Shut the door behind you, Ives"

I followed her directions and plopped down on Sloane’s oversized bed Sloane’s room was decorated in the saht and airy with touches of eighteenth century France Every piece of her ivory painted provincial bedroom set was occupied in some way by Sloane, Exie or their sisters Evaleen and Anaxandra

Exie was at the vanity curling her sister Anaxandra’s hair She had long golden curls, just like Exie and icy blue eyes fra-boobed Barbies with tiny waists and perfect manes of hair Anaxandra watched disinterestedly as Exie arranged her hair in a perfect mess that would appear casual even if it had taken several hours to accomplish

Evaleen, Sloane’s sister shared her pale complexion and deep, dark brown eyes, but her hair was more chestnut than Sloane’s rich almost black hair Evaleen was definitely Snow White’s older sister, and not the fairy tale princess that Sloane was, but she was still breath-taking, still heart-stopping All of these beautiful girls could give anyone an inferiority complex

That is if you weren’t equally as beautiful and acutely aware that this kind of splendor ca price you would have to pay for the rest of your existence and never, not once, not even in your outspoken fantasies or most private hopes and dreareeted in a falsely casual tone She lifted her eyes fro stare "It’s been a while Hoas the… what are you calling it? Thetome what happened was ht into this together, the saether But apparently Exie was right, these two girls that I used to look up to as heroes had bought into the lie

Everyone in the roo at me with jewel-like eyes and practiced expressions of curiosity

"Rehab," I finally whispered,to stand byeveryone I went to rehab"

Anaxandra snorted her disapproval "Not a very flattering lie Fat cahteous rage at her callousness and decided to save the "beauty is on the inside" fight for when it actually aided my case In fact, all of my beauty was on the outside All of it So it didn’t really ue with Anaxandra or not, she would clearly win this argument