Chapter 38 : The Switch

The next week and a half were the darkest times I’d ever had in my life.

I barely got to talk to Alice because Valerie was always assigning us chores in different areas of the house. I knew she was doing it on purpose to keep us apart. I hadn’t seen Dante because there hadn’t been any more parties. Every day felt like it was the same. That was why I was surprised when Valerie came into the room I was dusting and told me I had a date in five minutes.

“What room is it in?” I asked her.

What I was really asking was who the date was with. When Valerie told me it was the room I usually met Dante, I could have leapt up and kissed her. But I controlled my reaction and studied Valerie as inconspicuously as I could. She was smiling, but I could tell that she still wasn’t sleeping well and she had lost weight. Valerie was already a tiny person, so she was starting to look sick from not eating.

I walked to the room with a smile on my face. I walked into the open door and s