𝐬𝐡𝐚𝐦𝐞𝐥𝐞𝐬𝐬

Ten

"I left you alone for five minutes and you already kidnapped a poor, innocent girl?" a pixie-like girl with the same shade hair and eyes as Bastien smiles at him. Her accent is very thick--I can barely understand her. She's standing on a porch to a small wooden cottage surrounded by water and planets, the same cottage Bastien is currently leading me to.

"For goodness sakes, Liana, I did not kidnap someone," he glances back at me and smirks. "And I doubt she's innocent."

"Whatever, just bring her inside! I already have tea brewing," she calls as she walks back into the house.

"I'm pretty sure you did kindap me," I stage-whisper when we reach the porch.

"Keep quiet about it or I'll never hear the end of it," he pretends to whisper back as he holds the door open for me.

I step into the cottage, it smells of oranges and lemon—but somehow not gross mixed together. Three white windows line the wooden walls and a white couch under them decorated with brown and yellow throw pillows with a coffee table in front that has a basket filled with different colors of yarn. A dark wooden desk sits in the very corner of the room with papers and a closed computer laid out on it.

"Welcome to our humble abode," Bastien bows dramatically and smiles when he straightens and locks eyes with me.

"I swear, Liana, if you're making tea for the third time today I'm hiding the kettle from you," a new voice breaks through my momentary distraction.

Bastien looks away from me and frowns, heading into a new room. I debate just staying put until he comes back but I'm too curious so I follow behind.

The room appears to be the kitchen with two cupboards and many cabinets lining the walls, the fridge decorated with what looks like family photos and straight A report cards framed, and a small kitchen island in the middle of it all which Bastien and Liana are sitting at while a girl—who looks exactly likes Liana, just with curlier hair—pours steaming hot water into three green mugs.

She looks up and narrows her eyes when she sees me. "Is that Mom's project?"

"Madeline!" Bastien scolds.

The girl—Madeline, apparently—waves him off. "I'm not going to sugar coat it like you two do." She gestures to him and her sister.

"Sugar coat what?" I pipe in.

"And she's clueless?" Madeline laughs. "Mom really knows how to pick 'em. I really hope there's a valid reason why she's so obsessed with you."

"Who shoved a stick up your ass?" I retort.

Madeline puts down the kettle and starts marching over to me but Bastien quickly holds her back. "Can you calm the hell down?"

"You're always so quick to judge, Maddie," Liana calmly sips her tea as if this is completely normal to her. "Dad would be disappointed."

"Don't bring that man into this," Madeline shoves Bastien off of her. "I don't care what he thinks of me."

Then the room grows silent.

"Where are my favorite triplets?" Odette's voice sings through the house. I hear kings jingling and rustling around before turning around and finding her in the kitchen doorway.

Her gaze instantly settles on me and her lips form into a tight smile that I can tell is forced. "Well, I see you've met our new prodigy."

Madeline snorts. Liana nudges her.

"She'll be staying in the attic until we can get her into her dorm at Hansen," Odette explains to her children like I'm not standing right here. "You three will be in charge of cleaning it."

Madeline groans. "This is the worst."

Odette ignores her. "Amie, darling, come here and let's discuss some things." She holds out her arm and leads me up a pair of stairs, down the hall, and into an isolated room which I assume is hers from the elaborate decoration and huge ass bed.

She flicks on the light and pulls her hair into a bun, gesturing me to sit on the bed. I take a seat and she pulls out a huge chair that I didn't see before, sitting down.

She folds her hands and licks her lips. "I'm sorry for not considering how hard this must be for you. I spoke with your parents and—"

"You did what?" I exclaim, about to repeat the actions from our last meeting. "How dare you do that without my permission? How do you even know who they are? I left without saying anything for a reason."

Odette looks like she's suppressing a nasty comment. "I just wanted to see if you had any allergies or conditions we should be concerned of and if they wanted to come visit sometime. We would supply the plane tickets, of course. I figured they knew everything."

I'm speechless. The only thing I can do is stand up and walk out of the room stifling tears. Again.