Chapter Two

I realized Emily nor I had a dress special enough to wear for our first appearance in the Hamptons, so Ems and I decided to go dress shopping. Today was also the first day that we carried out the beginning of our plan. Ems decided to call Ashley to see if she needed anything, and we agreed to help her pick up her dress since she was too busy to meet us for lunch. Emily decided to go to lunch anyway for picture evidence while I did my part and picked out our dresses.

By the time I got back to the South Fork Inn to see someone being taken into an ambulance. I could only guess it was Mr. Grayson when I spotted Lydia talking to my sister. I rushed to them, dresses in hand, "Do you need a ride to the hospital, Lydia? We were just on our way home, we can drop you off on the way."

"I already offered Bells, she didn't need a ride." Emily looked back at Lydia and placed a hand on her shoulder. "

Lydia runs away, most likely to her car so she isn't anywhere near where she could be recognized. I looked at Ems, and she held up her phone saying she got the pictures. I held up our dresses, expressing my delight that I found the perfect dresses for this afternoon. We just had one more stop to make and that was to pick up Ash's dress from the cleaners. As Emily went in to grab the dress I got out to stretch my legs, spotting a white Labrador Retriever with a man. I couldn't help but stare. I had to make sure I wasn't dreaming and this really was Emily and I's friend. I couldn't believe he was still here.

The dog spotted me and ran over, sitting in front of me while the man shouted for Sammy and ran over.

"Sam?" I looked at the dog as if he could respond and the dog immediately jumped on me crying. I laughed getting on my knees and giving him all the pets and scratches he missed out on. Emily came over and laughed putting the dress in the car while he ran over to pet Sam as well. I looked at Emily with tears in my eyes, "It's Sammy, Ems. He remembers us." I laughed more petting our dog until the man came up and apologized to us.

"I'm so sorry! He's not normally this friendly with strangers." Jack was immediately smitten with my sister again and I watched the two stare at each other. "He's kind of an old grump, actually."

"It's alright, my sister and I have a way with animals." I could tell Emily was putting on a brave face. It didn't take her a second to know who this was and I felt bad for her. We had to act like strangers even though we were anything but. As we stood up to leave Jack shouted at us for our names, and I was about to answer, but Emily grabbed my hand to stop me. I turned to her confused, wondering why she wouldn't want to him our names. We were bound to run into him again, this wasn't exactly a big town where we could avoid him. Jack insisted he put us on the tab, his family owns the Tavern down by the docks called the Stowaway, but again she refused. I waved goodbye to Jack as we sat in our car.

"It wouldn't hurt to tell him our names. We can't exactly avoid him in this town."

"Bella, we knew this was going to be hard. Jack cannot get involved in this. It's safer for him to stay out of it." Emily ended the conversation as we went home for the party.

Emily came into the kitchen, spinning her white Draped Grecian dress with the cut-out sleeve I bought for her while I was in my favorite white one-shoulder Chiffon dress with a slit going up to my upper thigh on my leg. I wanted to match, but not look exactly the same. Once we both approved of each other's attire, we left to go to the party.

It wasn't what we were expecting. For a fundraiser, it looked more like a yacht party. Everyone looked rich, to say the least, fancy dresses and expensive suits were all over the docks and boats.

"This is their version of a fundraiser?" I linked arms with Emily as we spotted Ashley walking quickly to us.

"You ladies look amazing!" she smiles greeting us with a hug.

"You look more amazing than we do." Emily and I smiled at each other as we spoke in sync.

"No seriously, Isabella you look like a greek goddess." Ashley spun me around admiring the dress I bought earlier.

"You know Bells with her Greek attire." Emily laughs and asks Ashley to give us a quick tour of who everyone was. She linked arms with me again and asked Ashley how well she knew everyone.

Turns out Ashley didn't know everyone personally but she knew enough about who to stay away from and who to snuggle up to, Ashley's words as she did a quick introduction to who some people were. First-person she pointed out was a girl in an orange Escada dress, was Mayor Bloomberg's niece who was talking to a woman in a green dress, Megan Foster.

"Shoe buyer for Barneys of New York." Ashley joked making it sound important. I started to laugh and looked at Emily who was smiling. I looked around and spotted Emily's target. I tugged her arm and nodded my head to the boat across from us, and Emily nodded at me.

"Great suit boy is kinda cute."

I smiled, looking at where she was looking as if for the first time, and giggled.

"That's Daniel Grayson," Ashley informed us, even though we already knew everything about him, "Victoria's tragically privileged spawn."

"Not everyone with money is tragically privileged." I tried to come to the poor guy's defense. It wasn't his fault his parents were murderers and liars. "You're friends with us after all and we have money."

Ashley smiled and took my hand, "You also don't go around bragging about it." Ashley spoke lowly so only we could hear her, "Daniel wrapped his convertible around a tree last summer after one too many."

I noticed Emily was checking him out, "Didn't hurt his face much." I squealed at Emily after hearing her say that and it made us all laugh

"Well, it didn't work out quite as well for the waitress he was shagging. His parents paid off everyone and their mother to keep him out of jail."

Even though we knew, Emily and I kept our faces blank for the rest of the introductions. Ashley pointed out the Queen as our friend called her, Victoria Grayson with her husband Conrad. Emily looked a little too long as her, making us look as if we were in awe of her, but we were anything but. I forced myself to look away when Ashley commented the plot was thickening, and I froze. The plot was indeed thickening. I spotted my man who I knew I had to force myself to stay away from.

Emily feigning ignorance asked who Ashley was talking about while rubbing my arm for support.

"Nolan Ross," Ashley announced in annoyance looking back at the two of us. "former tech boom whiz kid and perennial pain in the ass." I was about to defend him when Emily pinched me, shaking her head, "If you emptied the bank accounts of everyone at this party, it wouldn't add up to the interest he makes in a week."

"So what you're saying is, he's the richest one here." Victoria was working her way around greeting her guests when she spotted the three of us. "We have been discovered, Ems." I whispered to Emily as Ashley guided us over to greet her. Emily tensed, squeezing my arm tighter, and refused to unlink our arms. To my happiness, Conrad was nowhere near Victoria when Ashley interrupted the Queen and Miss Lydia.

"I just wanted to introduce you to two dear friends of mine." Ashley put her hand on my back and smiled at the two of us. "Victoria Grayson, Emily Thorne, and her sister Isabella Thorne."

"Hello, Mrs. Grayson" Emily and I both extended our hands in unison as we greeted her.

"Ah, the twins Ashley has always rattled on about." Victoria smiled at us, "I was wondering who the two late entries were on the guest roster."

"We just moved to the Hamptons, and we really want wanted to take part in your fund-raiser." I smiled looking at my sister Emily.

"How do you ladies and Ashley know each other?" Victoria engaged in small talk but I couldn't wait till this was over. I spotted Nolan talking to a few guests, thankful he hasn't spotted me yet.

"We volunteered together at the met last winter." Ashley smiled happily, "Apparently being sustaining patrons just wasn't enough for the girls."

"We both try to give back as much as we can." Emily leaned her head against mine making me smile. We were each other's rock, and doing this together proved that we were inseparable. I looked to my right and spotted Lydia and knew it was time to make my move.

"Lydia," I shouted gaining her attention, "Hi."

"Oh don't tell me you've taken up volunteering at the met as well."

We all laughed as Victoria thought this was such a small world. If she only knew how small it really was.

"The ladies are renting my house for the summer." Lydia smiled at us, "We met briefly on the beach."

"And then yesterday at the Southfork Inn." I knew exactly what Ems was doing and took my cue.

"Oh that's right, my sister and I were just talking about that." I announced looking at everyone worriedly, "We really hope your husband is feeling better."

I glanced at Victoria, she must have known her husband was doing something because realization appeared on her face as she stared at Lydia, and unfortunately, that look from Lydia said it all. She never said anything, but looks speak a thousand words. Victoria stormed off with Lydia right behind her.

Step one of our job today was completed. Ashley left us to make sure things kept running smoothly, she was the planner after all. Emily and I ordered drinks and Emily was going to introduce herself to Daniel while I decided to spend my time avoiding Nolan. Emily was worried, but I reassured her if he spotted me I could handle him, but I also wasn't going to make it easy to find me.

I kept Nolan in my sight, making sure wherever he was, I wasn't in his line of sight. He looked much more mature than all those years ago, which made sense since I haven't seen him since we were let out of jail. I wanted to run to him and tell him I was there, but I knew I couldn't.

I knew this would be hard. Emily warned me of this, especially what happened earlier with Jack. I knew it was safer for him to be as far away from me as possible. We had to protect the ones we love, and unfortunately, once our plan was finished, we planned on disappearing again. There wasn't any room in our plan for a happy ending. We would come out of this alive, but we knew once this was all over we couldn't come back here.