The Night Of August 15th

23.

Iris grabbed Rowan by her arm. "Well, I guess we need to start planning your wedding," she smiled at Juan Esteban and then she dragged Rowan out of the living room and into the very spacious kitchen. Iris was taken aback by the size of the kitchen, it had been a long time since she had been exposed to the many perks of being wealthy.

"First of all," she held up her index finger, "this kitchen is unnecessarily big. Secondly," she accompanied her index finger with her middle finger "I don't know who is crazier, you or Amber," she dropped her hands to her side.

"What are you talking about?" Rowan asked innocently and slid her left leg in front of her right.

"Why the hell do you want to get married anytime soon, are you so thick in the head that you do not realize that a wedding is the best place for Alicia to destroy us?"

"My wedding will be invitation only, Alicia won't be able to get in," she said stubbornly and shook her legs as if she was trying to get an insect off it.

"None of us invited Alicia into our lives yet she found a way to slither her way into it," Iris rose her voice but tried to keep it contained so as not to draw attention Juan Esteban's attention to them.

"Listen," Rowan whispered and brought her head forward. "I'm not going to let Alicia or Amber ruin my chance of being Juan Esteban's wife, so if I have to marry him today I will," she said adamantly. " Amber is acting crazy and paranoid, she's letting Alicia win. And besides, when we get married we'll be gone for two weeks for our honeymoon, this will buy us some time to figure out who's doing this and maybe even catch them."

"How does your brain function?" Iris slapped her palm to her head and groaned. "Who says Alicia will stop tormenting us just because you're on your honeymoon?"

"That b*tch has worked so hard to get all of us together, which means her plan can only be effective if we're together."

"Then if that's the case, Alicia will make sure you don't leave," she moved so close to Rowan's face that her nose slightly brushed against hers "and you'll regret pushing your wedding date up," she said convincingly and marched out of the kitchen.

--

The next day, both Sarah and Harper walked into Bekah's hospital room. As they were walking in two police officers were heading out. They greeted each other and went their opposite ways. Sarah turned around to watch them as they walked down the hallway of the second floor.

"Aren't they supposed to be protecting you?" she craned her neck to the side and pointed at the door with her thumb as she walked further into the room.

Bekah intertwined her fingers and pushed her body up. She sat on the hospital bed with her back resting on the pillow. She took in a deep breath and said. "They don't have to protect me from anyone anymore," she said in a shaky tone and swallowed.

"And why the hell is that?" Harper asked as she sat on Bekah's bed with her feet rested flat on the sheets.

"I tried to kill myself," Bekah rushed out the words and began to breathe hard as she awaited their responses. She squeezed her eyes shut and took in a deep breath. She gathered some courage to lift her eyelids and she was not pleased with both their facial expressions.

"What the?" Sarah blinked multiple times and looked at Harper with a confused expression on her face, Harper had the same look of bewilderment, along with some heavy eye bags, all over her face. Sarah placed the back of her hand on Bekah's forehead and she took Bekah's face in her palms. "No, you didn't," she shook her head as if it would make what she heard any less true."You would never do something like that," her voice cracked "you're happy, very happy.''