Sweet Like Revenge

34 - The Study Summit

As I put my car into park outside of the Hawthorne's mountainside home, I felt my breath catch in my throat. It wasn't a 'house' that stared back at me through the car window — that was a vast understatement. The Hawthorne residence was a mansion, a modern-day castle. A place for the rich and powerful and sickeningly important. So why was little old me being granted access?

It had to be a mistake.

I edged up the stone steps to the iron front door slowly, taking in the fact that I was willingly stepping into enemy territory. Not just any enemy, either. The enemy.

The one I'd come back for.

Before I had a chance to grip the lion-headed door knocker in front of me or take a final deep breath to settle my nerves, the door swung open.

"Sorry, sweetheart." A dainty-looking woman with a striking resemblance to Sienna hovered in place, fixing an earring as she flashed me a polite smile. "You must be Elle."

I nodded, struggling to hide my disappointment at the fact that the inside of Sienna's home was just as beautiful as the outside. Damn it.

She stepped aside, motioning to the double staircase behind her. "Geoff and I were just on our way out. Sienna's in her room; upstairs, down the right wing."

The right wing?! Their house was big enough to have wings?

I thanked her, then turned to follow her instructions without question. The Hawthornes just had that effect on people, it seemed. It wasn't until I was halfway up that staircase that I realized — I had no idea where exactly Sienna's room was down this so-called 'right wing'.

But when I turned to confer Mrs. Hawthorne again, both she and Sienna's father were closing the front door behind them.

Great. A spy, I thought, lost in the queen's labyrinth. That was probably Sienna's plan all along.

"Elle!" a featherlight voice called from above. Sienna's porcelain face popped over the banister. "I didn't see your car pull up. Come on up."

I smiled gratefully as I hurried up the remaining steps to join Sienna on the landing, though my feeling of unease hadn't completely subsided.

"Cute outfit," she said sweetly — too sweetly — as she led me down the vast corridor.

I frowned at my simple pink coat and scuffed boots, suddenly feeling very common in a place that seemed so regal. "Thanks..."

"I wish I could pull off pink," she told me, opening the door to what I assumed was her room.

Sienna's bedroom was immaculate. Irritatingly so. Did the girl who was already so beautiful, so charismatic and confident and bewitching, have to be so damn perfect in every aspect of her life? 

"I started the essay," she told me, pointing to an array of papers and textbooks scattered on top of her pristine cream bed cover.

I tried to hide my awe at the size and state of her room as I moved towards the bed. "Which topic did you choose?"

"The one on jealousy," she said, sitting at her desk and opening her MacBook. "Which characters are most motivated by jealousy? How does it impact their actions and lives?"

Was it just me, or did her tone sound... pointed?

I retrieved a red pen from my bag as I positioned myself on the edge of the bed. "Great. I'll give it a read through—"

"You really don't mess around, huh?" She laughed, leaning back lazily in her chair as she dangled one leg over the other. "Relax, Elle. We have all night."