❝ I genuinely thought the worst of this nightmare was over ❞
Halle Brewster told a lie, and the secrets kept growing. After slaying one stalker, another reared its nasty head, and Halle was starting to wonder if she'd ever be free from the friendshi...
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Their usual spot had been taken. The Brew tended to get busier on weekends after picking up more regular patrons, and if the girls hadn't arrived at a certain time, the secluded seating area, boxed in from the rest, was stolen. That Sunday morning, the five friends had to deal with one of the small iron-wrought tables near the rear as four of them filed through the silicone box of bird toys jumbled up with Alison's things.
"Okay, my mom is not connected to a cockatoo," began Hanna, insulted at how this was how Emily assumed they could help Mrs Marin out of A gunning for her over Wilden's murder.
"Parrot," Emily corrected. She held some noisy, soft toy which squawked more than Tippi ever did.
As Halle batted it away from her face, Hanna groaned and said, "Whatever."
Aria, next to Halle, took a keen liking to going through all the toys. She explained to Hanna, "Well, that bird is connected to Ali, Ali's connected to Cape May and Wilden, and Wilden's connected to your mom — and us — and stuff we don't know anything about."
"Wow," Halle chimed, both sarcastic and extremely wry, "it's almost like Alison never told us anything. Oh, wait—" she feigned her realisation, "that is what happened, right?"
"Okay, I know you're still sulking because I dragged you back into this mess," Aria considered, eyes on Halle, "but please, go easy."
"I'm trying," said Halle. Under her breath, with pouted lips, she muttered, "It's just really hard."
"Besides, this is as much about clearing your mom as it is Alison," Emily told Hanna.
Lowly, because she was highly aware they were in public, Hanna said, "My mom may have hit him a little with her car, but she did not kill Wilden."
"Of course not," Spencer immediately agreed. She glanced over to Halle, who refused to even touch the items Emily had collected that morning and only glimpsed at them when someone showed it to her, and Spencer asked, "Did you tell your parents you pointed a gun at Wilden the night he was killed?"
Halle stopped glowering over her macchiato to glower at Spencer. "Do you ever wanna see me again? I'd be grounded for life," she claimed, just as Emily started to wince at the built-up tightness in her bruised shoulder.
Noticing, Aria asked, gazing up at her injured friend, "Hey, how's your shoulder?"
"And your head," Halle put in.
After somebody picked up on her messing with it, Emily stopped. She acted like it hadn't just been causing her pain and played it off like it was nothing. "Um, I'm seeing the doctor again tomorrow," she said.
"Here," Halle said. She puts aside her coffee and bent down to root inside her handbag. Out of it, she pulled out a box; inside was a fresh tube of ibuprofen gel.
