When Sienna pulled into the driveway of Gram's house at eleven o'clock at night, she found all the lights on. Gram usually went to bed at nine. The whole house had an eerily feel to it, as if it were overcome with misery. Stepping out of her car, Sienna got chills. Her cheery mood vanished. Somehow, she knew her fears were all about to come true.
She walked in the front door and listened.
Voices were coming from the kitchen. There were several. Sienna tried to listen, but her mind wouldn't put words together. She walked slowly through the hallway and into the kitchen. There were four people seated at the table: Gram, Paige, Camryn, and Matt. Standing in front of them were three police officers. The tallest of the group, a man, was speaking.
"We're very sorry that you all had to find out like this," he was saying. "We understand that this must be a hard time for your family…"
Sienna froze.
"Is she dead?" she whispered. They all turned to look at her. Sienna snapped. She began to shriek, "Is Lori dead? Did she die? Please tell me that I'm wrong! Is Larissa dead?"
Paige put her hands over her mouth, choked on words, and shook her head. Tears had already stained her cheeks. The new, brave Paige was replaced by the scared girl Sienna had found at the police station months ago.
"What happened?" Sienna demanded. "What's going on?"
"Sienna, baby, there's been…" Gram struggled for words.
"Lori overdosed, she's in the hospital," Camryn jumped in.
Oh. So, by Gram's terms, it wasn't exactly an "accident."
"Tell me everything!" Sienna pleaded.
The cop started, "From what we know, your mother—"
"Stepmother," Sienna corrected.
"Right, your stepmother stopped paying her bills, taxes, and house payments. One of the bankers kept trying to contact your stepmother, often with house visits and telephone calls. When they lost contact from your stepmother, they informed the police. Our officers received a warrant to enter the home when no one answered and it appeared to have been abandoned. Your mother had packed up her belongings and left. There was another girl…Lori…who came by when we opened the house and said she'd been locked out and unable to get ahold of her mother…apparently for about two weeks. We let her collect her things after she showed an ID and she left the estate. That was about a week ago. Earlier this morning, we received a 9-1-1 call from a club downtown…"
And, apparently, your stepsister decided to overdose, after her sister and her stepsister left her all alone with her crazy, drunk mother and then her crazy, drunk mother left her. Not even her mother stuck around, even being as drunk as she was…
"How is she doing?" she asked.
"We've been told she's recovering," the female cop said. "For right now, we've been instructed to find her mother. Do you have any idea where she might be?"
They want to find Linda Carlton? Follow the yellow brick road of booze, why don't you?
"I'm sorry, I have no idea where my stepmother might be," she said.
All three cops looked disappointed.
"Thank you for your cooperation, Madam," the taller cop said to Gram. "We're sorry to have interrupted you at such a late hour."
"Thank you for telling me the fate of family," Gram said. "I hope you find the vile woman. In the meantime, may I take guardianship of her two daughters?"
"That's a matter for social services, but, considering what we know of the situation right now…" the female woman looked at Paige, obviously thinking of Lori. "I would say the daughter in your care looks significantly better than the other. No right-minded judge would tell you no."
Gram relaxed. "Then that's the end of that."
"Thank you for your time, Officers," Matt said.
The third cop gave Matt a nod. "We wish you the best, Your Highness."
The three cops exited the house, leaving Gram with their names and phone numbers. They all gave the Prince a subtle nod of recognition and exited through the back door, heading two blocks before getting to their hidden squad cars.
"Why did they…?" Paige started.
"It's because the two of you are here, isn't it?" Sienna sighed and glanced at Matt and Camryn.
"We came as soon as we heard," Camryn said. "I'm so sorry for…"
Sienna walked over to the laundry room and grabbed two jackets off the coat rack. She threw one to Paige and gave another to Gram. When Paige's fingers began to shake so badly she struggled with the buttons, Sienna jumped in and helped her. Her fingers threaded in and out easily, gently buttoning Paige's coat and then smoothing the collar as if she were a child. When Paige looked her in the eyes, lost and terrified, Sienna stared right back, trying to feel strong.
Leaning in, Sienna whispered to Paige, "Take Camryn and Gram outside. Tell Camryn good-bye. Then you and Gram get in my car. We're going to go find Lori." Sienna pulled away and Paige nodded. Smiling sadly, Sienna let her hands fall away from Paige's collar. "I'll see you in a few minutes."
Paige walked over to Gram and took her hand. "Camryn," she said, "You should come with us."
Camryn stood up and followed Paige and Gram out the door. It wasn't until she was outside that Camryn realized she had left Matt alone with Sienna and that Sienna was locking the door behind them.
"What's going on?" Matt asked.
"Matthew…" Sienna tucked her hair behind her ears and tried to remember how confident she had been before. "This isn't going to work."
"Sienna…is the paparazzi really that bad?" he asked.
"No, it's not just the paparazzi," she said. "It's my life. We're different. This is never going to work. I'm not fit for your kind of lifestyle. You are an incredibly kind, open-minded person, and I have no doubt you will one day make an incredible political leader, but this is the end for our road together. I don't regret the experience, but we are not a match. In fact, we're too wrong for one another."
"Sienna, let's just talk about this," Matt said. "You're being rash. After all, Lori just got hurt. You're not thinking clearly."
"No, this isn't rash thinking, this is what I've been thinking all day," Sienna said. "You just happened to be here when I got home."
"Then I'll make you a deal," Matt said. "Let me come with you. We see Lori, you calm down, and then, if you still feel like breaking up tomorrow, we break up."
"I don't need the time, Matthew, but I can take the deal because I know my mind won't change."
He stood up. "How are you so sure?"
Sienna smiled and said, "Because…I feel no guilt in saying you will need your own ride to see Lori, and if I see a single reporter there, the agreement is immediately terminated."
"I can agree to that," Matt said, grinning. "I'll see you in a half hour, Sienna Carlton."
Goosebumps crossed Sienna's skin. The way he said her name made her feel like he was playing a game, and for once, it had gotten interesting. She wanted to fight, but she fought the urge and went for the front door. Throwing it open, she refused to look back and went down the front steps to her car. Camryn was standing there, walkie talkie in hand, staring at her as she went for the car. The walkie talkie dropped and she nodded toward Sienna, something in her eyes that Sienna couldn't place. It was almost guilt.
"And a nice day to you, too," Sienna said, plopping into the car seat, slamming her door, pulling on her seat belt, and throwing the car into reverse. She gunned backward, into the street, and away from the house. Once she was at the end of the block, she looked back at Camryn.
There, as cheerfully as ever, Camryn was waving at her.
"I don't understand that girl," Sienna said.
"Trust me, Sienna, I think she's saying the same thing about you," Paige said, sitting in Sienna's passenger seat with her feet propped up on the dash.
"Classy," Gram said, pointing to her filthy sneakers.
Paige looked from Gram to Sienna with a look of disbelief. "Who are you people? The etiquette police?"
"Please, I am a proud, elderly woman," Gram stated. "I would have had a proud granddaughter, too, if she had the spirit to flip that little girl off on her way out of the driveway, rather than burning rubber. To be honest, I was hoping that from the moment she exited the house."
"Why don't you two like Camryn?" Paige asked. "She's not so bad."
Gram declared, "She was weak."
"How so?" Sienna asked.
"That girl was clearly on a leash and didn't want to be, but, for whatever reason, she didn't fight it. People like that…they can't be tamed. What fool keeps trying to domesticate a woman with a spirit like that? I hope he or she likes their final product, because once she's broken, she will never go back."
Paige looked almost impressed. "How do you know that?"
"Because that's how Sienna's mother was, wild and free, until she fell in love."
Sienna's cheeks burned. Her mother had been a wild and free spirit? That didn't fit Sienna's memories of the woman. In the first Mrs. Carlton's days, she had alternated between quiet and sulky to quiet and crazy.
"What happened to her when she fell in love?" Paige asked.
"The man she loved was so far into his life already he couldn't stay wild and free with her. He told her the truth: they could never be, the way they were. So she changed. Sienna's mother sacrificed her freedom for love and became a mother and a wife. She couldn't go back afterward. She loved her family too much to leave."
Sienna's eyes burned. "Then why did she…?"
"There's only one reason I can think of, for her destroying her own life the way she did," Gram said. "I have thought for years and years, and the only reason I can accept is love. She loved you, she loved your brother, and she loved your father, but she felt like she had failed and there was nothing else she could do. Her mind was gone. No matter how many pills she took, she couldn't control her own mind and nightmares. The doctors couldn't help her. Neither could the therapists. She was all alone, fighting a battle she would never win. It had destroyed your father emotionally and was killing you both. I think she saw this, and, alone in her own mind, she chose the only way out she could find that promised you both freedom."
The rest of the ride was in silence. Paige kept staring at Sienna, but Sienna watched the road. Gram retreated into the back seat. The elderly woman looked comforted by the sight of the window. Around them, the lights of the city had gone up. Far in the distance, the palace lights were on the horizon. Sienna tried to avoid looking at them as she watched the hospital appear closer and closer. She turned in and let Paige and Gram out before she went to park the car.
After parking in back, she walked in through the ER, found the nurse's station, and was directed to Lori's room. Gram and Paige were already there, seated around Lori.
"Well, hello there!" Lori said. She looked awful. Dark circles were under her eyes, her skin was red and blistered, and she looked like she hadn't eaten in weeks. "It's been a while, hasn't it?"
"Why didn't you call?" Sienna asked.
Lori flinched. "It crossed my mind once or twice, but to be honest, I was too shit-faced to know or care where I was. That happens to me every once in a while, but for the last week or so it's been about every hour of every day, and, unfortunately, that made it very difficult to call."
"We would have come," Paige said.
"Would you, now? What makes you so sure? I'm a bit of a mess." Lori locked eyes with Gram. "They said I need to go to rehab. Is that coming out of your pocket? I don't have money for that kind of help and I doubt your little house on the end of the block can take me."
"Lori, please behave," Sienna begged.
"I have fallen off the wagon, Princess Bitch, and I no longer care what you think of me. Would you like to give me an 'I told you so' now that I've ruined my life and there is nowhere for me to go? The good girls get the princes, the bad girls end up in hospital beds with an IV in their arm, dirt broke, with a drug addiction. I can officially no longer afford my own mind-numbing stuff."
"We'll figure this out," Sienna said, sitting down next to her. "No matter what it takes, we'll find the money, or the place, or something…"
"I know you're supporting Paige!" Lori snapped. "Your Gram called my mom. Told her that she owed you some child support, since, after all, you were paying all of Paige's expenses now. How the hell could your bakery job afford both of us? You'd have to own that bakery and some shit to afford me now!"
Sienna glared at Gram. "That doesn't matter. I'll get a second job…I'll…"
"I'm not your lost cause, Princess Bitch, and if you try to save me, I'll kick your ass."
The monitor next to Lori began to beep loudly. A nurse ran in and began to check wires. With a grim expression, she turned to the four of them and said, "I'm sorry, ladies, but Larissa needs some rest. We need to get some more medication into her system…"
"JUST LET ME DIE!" Lori roared. "Why won't you just let me die? I will fight you all over again, woman, if I have to…"
The nurse pulled a syringe from her pocket and put it into Lori's IV. Immediately, her screams turned into wordless garbles and she fell backward into her pillows. The bed shook at the impact. Next to Lori's bed, the nurse sighed in relief.
"She's been like that since she got here, every time she wakes up." The nurse said, wiping her forehead with a cloth. "None of the other nurses dare come in here anymore. I'm the only one…because I'm the newest nurse at the hospital, I volunteered…"
"Thank you," Gram stood up and patted the girl's shoulder. "Shall we get coffee and talk about future procedures? There will definitely be something following this, won't there?"
"I advise an anger management class or two, personally," the nurse said. "Also, I suggest you get her a squeeze ball. Even if she doesn't use it for stress, it's better for her to throw that at me rather than the dinner tray she knocked me in the head with a few hours ago."
Sienna noticed the nurse had a large, swelling purple bump on the side of her head. That was Lori's work all right, no doubt about it. The girl was hell.
"Let's get you some ice, too, along with that coffee," Gram said, wrapping an arm around the nurse's shoulder as she led her out of the room.
Paige and Sienna were left alone with the sleeping Lori.
"She's kind of a shithead," Paige said, laughing and sniffling at the same time. "They're trying to save her life and all she does is scream and throw dinner trays at them…"
"What do you expect? That's Lori for you." Sienna sat down in Gram's seat next to Lori's bed and watched Lori's heart monitor. "The proof's right there, though…she's got a heart underneath all of that. Apparently, that old thing is still beating after all the abuse."
Paige's laugh turned into a small sob. "How could this happen, Sienna? Your mother…my mother…all this stuff…how can we do this? There's no way…"
"We will get through this, Paige, I promise." Sienna took her hand. "I have some good news. Frank said…"
She froze. Standing in the doorway were Camryn and Matt, both holding bouquets of flowers. Camryn had tears in her eyes as she stepped forward, placed the flowers on the table, and went to hug Paige. Sienna released Paige's hand and stood up.
"I'll get some coffee," she told Paige.
"That sounds nice," Paige said, sniffling again.
Sienna walked out of the room without glancing at Matt. She didn't want to make eye contact with him. He didn't say a word as she started down the hall toward a coffee station. She saw Gram and the nurse chatting quietly in the back corner at a small table. The nurse had a coffee and a cookie and Gram had what appeared to be tea. Gram was tall and confident while the nurse looked miserable and tired.
Standing at the counter of the coffee station, Sienna ordered two black coffees and a big chocolate chip cookie. The man stepped back and handed her a large cookie, followed by two steaming-hot cups. She was about to pay when Matt swooped in with a credit card. Sienna was about to protest when the man at the counter swiped the card, gave it back to Matt, and Matt was steering her away.
"Is the cookie for you or for me?" he asked.
"Neither, it's for Paige," Sienna said. "Why did you pay for that?"
"Because it was the gentlemen thing to do, wasn't it? We're still friends. I don't know why you're so angry with me, but we need to talk about it." Matt was firm. "Let's go into that room over there and have a chat. We can even keep the blinds open, so people can see us."
"What if they need that room?" Sienna asked.
"Then we'll leave," Matt clarified.
Sienna was now just being downright difficult. "And what if because we were in there, they have to sanitize the room all over again?"
"Fine, we will go to a bathroom somewhere and talk about it!"
"The prince and his so-called girlfriend caught alone together in a bathroom…that sounds like an awful newspaper headline to me. I'm not interested." She turned away from him again.
"We have to talk somewhere," Matt pushed.
"Do hospitals have roofs?" she asked.
"I'm sure they do," Matt said. "Is that your idea of a good, calm location to sort things out?"
"As soon as I…" Sienna entered Lori's room. Paige and Camryn were talking quietly in the chairs. Doing her best to be quiet, Sienna walked over and set the coffees and the cookie in front of Paige. "I'll be back in twenty minutes. If I'm gone any longer, tell Gram I'm on the roof and tell her to bring a security guard. Understood?"
Paige's eyes grew wide but she nodded.
"We're going to have a talk, not get violent!" Matt protested.
Camryn's eyes lit up. "Are you two…broken up?"
"Yep," Sienna broke off a piece of the cookie and walked out the door. "See you guys in a few."
Sienna and Matt walked down the hall to the elevator. Matt pushed the button and the doors dinged and slid open. With a gentlemanly wave, Matt ushered Sienna in. Once she was inside, she felt a sense of doom overcome her as the doors closed. Matt hit a button, and then, when they started to move, he hit another. The whole elevator stilled. The lights blinked and half of them went out. The rumble died. They were no longer moving.
"What are you doing?" Sienna demanded.
It was then Matt declared, "New plan."
