That night, after I arrived home from Zac's apartment, I jumped in the shower for a quick rinse. As the warm water ran down my body, I obsessed over how I was going to tell Bea about the change in plans regarding Lily and the charity ball. Once I stepped out of the bathroom and changed into my sleepshirt, I was about to go knock on my half-sister's bedroom door when, lo and behold, she came to tap on mine first.

"Open up, Cate!" Bea hollered through the door. "I need to talk to you!"

"Come in," I called back. "It's not locked."

Bea entered. Her blue eyes danced around my room anxiously. Her usual air of hostility was diminished by a cloud of trepidation. "I have good news, and I have bad news."

My eyebrows rose. "Go on."

"I guess I'll tell you the good news first. Believe it or not, Lily agreed to host the event at her house. I honestly didn't expect to convince her so easily. And the layout of her place is surprisingly perfect. She has this huge formal indoor entertaining space that opens up to a large wooden deck out back. There's also a fountain and one of those hedge mazes in the yard. It's super posh. Almost as nice as our original venue. Just a little smaller."

"I see," I muttered with a sinking feeling in my stomach. "So... what's the bad news?"

She took in a deep breath. "The bad news is... Lily saw you leaving school with Zac today. She's fucking pissed about it."

Uh-oh.

I grimaced. "How bad is it?"

"I think it was one of the reasons she even considered my request. I'm starting to suspect she might have sent those creepy texts you showed me the other day. That girl seems to be obsessed with getting back at you for going after her ex. Watch your back, Cate."

Not a single word of what Bea told me was news to me.

My nerves relaxed slightly. "In case you were wondering, she was the one who sent those texts."

"No way!" A worried shadow passed across Bea's pretty face. "Then, you're definitely not gonna like this next part. You know how you wanted Lily to believe that we hated each other? Well, she wouldn't stop harassing me for dirt on you, and I didn't know how to get away without giving up something that would make her happy. So, um..."

"Yeah?"

"I might have told her about how you're getting cut off after you turn eighteen."

My heart dropped. "What the fuck, Bea? Why didn't you just make something up?"

Bea glared at me. "I'm not stupid, you know! Of course I tried to lie, but Lily saw through me right away. She's a lot sharper than I gave her credit for, you know? In the end, I had no choice. I was forced to pick between the lesser of two evils..."

I gave my half-sister a funny look. "Are you telling me that you'd rather ruin your mom's lifelong reputation as a benevolent woman of God than let her find out about Evonne?"

Bea wouldn't look me in eye, but she nodded. "Lately, I've been trying to care less about what my mom thinks of me. I don't like having to bend to her will over every little thing in my life."

"Be honest with me," I mumbled. "What's going on between you and Evonne? Are you guys 'just friends' or... something more?"

The color drained from Bea's cheeks. Reluctantly, she lifted her blue eyes to meet my hazel ones. "I don't know, Cate. I really don't. I was already tipsy from Aleah's party. From there, everything just happened so fast. It's all a blur."

"Did you kiss her?"

Bea hesitated agan. "Well, Evonne kissed me first, but I started kissing her back, too."

Judging by the deep pinkish hue of her cheeks, it seemed Bea recalled the kissing very well.

"Do you like her?"

My half-sister started wringing her hands together. It was the first time in my life that I had ever seen her so visibly flustered.

"I-I don't know. It's so... weird. Like, the stuff she talks about should be boring and lame. Sports, comic books, and all these TV shows that I've never heard of. But she gets so excited about all those little things. I mean, she's..."

"She's... what?"

Bea sighed helplessly and rambled on, "She's fucking adorable, actually. But Chloe and Mads wouldn't approve of someone like her. Evonne is nice. Too nice. So nice that the world will probably eat her up."

"You mean, she's not heartless and bitchy like us?" I offered dryly.

My joke made Bea crack a small smile. "No one is bitchier than you, Cate."

"Except you, right?" I shot back, but, this time, without as much bite.

"I'm only a bitch around you," Bea doled out somewhat good-naturedly.

I cleared my throat. This semi-friendly rapport between Bea and I definitely felt abnormal. I was feeling kind of confused about it, but in a good way. Ever since we were girls, Bea and I had never bantered back and forth like this without the intent to physically maim or harm one another on an emotional level.

My half-sister's next confession shocked me to the core. She murmured it under her breath, "I love the way I am around her, though. I'm like a totally different person."

I tried to mask my awe. "Is that how you really feel?"

Bea nodded slowly but surely. "Evonne makes me feel like there's hope for me despite all the shitty things I've done. I could be good. Like a real Christian. Not a fake one like my mom."

Bea's admission made me think of Zac. Of how much I had changed because of him. Of all the events that had happened since that first day he sat down beside me in Tilton's class. Of how much they had changed the way I viewed myself and the world around me, too.

"I'm happy for you, Bea," I said sincerely. "I really am."

My half-sister gaped at me. "What?"

"I mean it."

She gave me a look of suspicion. "So... you're not mad about what I told Lily?"

I shook my head. Shockingly enough, I really wasn't that upset. I mean, sure, I was nervous as fuck about going to school tomorrow morning to face my classmates—many of whom would cream their pants to witness the Bitch of Ashton Wellesley's fall from grace—but I didn't blame Bea for what she did. It would be foolish to expect to emerge unscathed when going head-to-head with a freak like Lily.

"No," I assured her, "what's done is done. The most important thing is that you secured her house for the charity ball."

"Shit," Bea breathed out in surprise. "You're being so nice right now. It's freaking me out."

I scrunched up my nose at her. "Don't get used to it, bitch. We're supposed to hate each other's guts, remember?"

She rolled her eyes in agreement. "I know, right? I keep forgetting that you're a total asshole. Not to mention, a bit of a stalker, too. Why are you so dead set on getting into Lily's house, anyway? I hope you're not planning to do anything illegal."

"Don't worry about it, Bea," I fibbed as casually as possible. "I just wanna go to her house with Zac on my arm and rub it all over her stupid face.

Bea seemed satisfied with my reponse. "You're such a savage bitch, Cate."

"Thanks. Everything I know, I learned from you."

Despite the shots we just fired off at each other, Bea and I proceeded to sit in companionable silence for a few minutes before she addressed me again.

"Cate?"

"Hmm?"

"Do you think I'm a sexual deviant?"

I was slightly taken aback. "A... what?"

"Is it wrong for me to kiss a girl?"

"Hell, no. In fact, I think it would only be wrong for someone to kiss a boy when they actually want to kiss a girl."

"I'm not a lesbian, you know? I still like dick!"

I shrugged. "Whether you prefer dick, vag, or both, if you like Evonne, you should let her know."

"It's not that simple, Cate," Bea moaned unhappily. "My mom would fucking disown me—or worse! She'd totally send me to one of those conversion therapy cults in the middle of the woods."

"As long as you're careful about it, I doubt your mom will ever find out. Madeline only comes here—what? Two or three times a year? And then you guys go down to Houston once for Christmas, right? So, really, you can do whatever the fuck you want when she's not around. But, in the unlikely event that you mom starts suspecting something, I promise to speak up for you. I'll lie for you. If you need me to get your mom off your back until you figure shit out with Evonne."

Disbelief flashed across my half-sister's face.

"You would do that for me?" she squeaked.

"You helped me with Lily, didn't you? I guess I kinda owe you one now."

Bea arched an eyebrow. "Hell, yeah, you do."

I smiled knowingly. "Trick knows, too, doesn't he?"

Bea blushed. "Yeah... he knows."

I grew silent for a second. Then, I mused out loud, "Fuck. Is this what it feels like to be sisters?"

Bea furrowed her brow. "I don't know. I guess we've never really tried."

"No, we haven't."

Her blue eyes grew wide all of a sudden as her brow creased. "I'm sorry, Cate."

"For what?"

"For locking you in the basement that one time when we were kids, you know, two days after we all moved in together? At the time, my mom kept telling me that you were going to steal all our money and take Daddy away from us. I hated you so much back then. Maybe... if I hadn't done all that, we wouldn't have ended up at each other's throats like we did."

"Who knows?" I sighed ruefully.

Bea coughed and cleared her throat. "After Daddy told us about Andrea, do you remember how you came to my room and asked for a favor?"

I nodded. "Yeah, what about it?"

"Do you remember how I told you that 'family was everything?'"

"Uh-huh."

She faltered a little. "Well... I-I wasn't talking about my mom or our dad."

I blinked. "You weren't?"

"I was talking about... us. Trick, you, and me."

Whoa, I hadn't expected my half-sister to say that at all.

She continued, "When Trick got into that fight at Aleah's part, we were the ones who took him to urgent care. It was the three of us sitting in that waiting room together. Mom and Daddy weren't there. That night, I realized that they're never fucking around when we need them."

My heart thudded painfully. The truth behind her words was undeniable. "Bea..."

"Whatever. Fuck them! I'm so sick and tired of trying to get them to love me when they don't give a shit about anyone but themselves," she growled.

"Fuck 'em," I echoed in agreement.

Her eyes narrowed deviously. "I did a little digging on Daddy's new wife, by the way. Her name is Andrea Swanson. She's a professor at Georgetown University."

I stared at her blankly. "Uh..."

Where was Bea going with this?

"After Christmas, I'm gonna fly down to DC to meet her."

My mouth parted in shock. "What? Does Dad know about this?"

"No. And neither does Trick. I reached out to Andrea on my own," she mumbled hastily. "Did you want to come with me?"