Page 2 of CurVy Forever

“Wait…” I hush them with a raise of my hand, snapping my head to the side as though I heard something rustling around on the woody forest floor. “You hear that, Dex? A rabbit.”

“No way.” He sneers, eyes still arrowed to Tyler who is cowering behind my back. “There isn’t a rabbit in there this time, Donnie. It’s not possible. Not again.”

“There is.” I beam and see Dex soften just a tad. “Year of the rabbit, Dex. Remember? It’s a sign from mum and dad. It’s me and Ty. Let’s catch it. Like we always do. If you get him, I’ll cook him for dinner. If Ty gets him, you forgive him, yeah?”

I know that by the time my big brother has run off his anger and caught that damn rabbit, he’ll already have forgiven Tyler. He isn’t even mad now.

He’s just sad.

Dexter is always sad.

He misses our parents.

CHAPTER 1

VALLIE

“Miss Relli?”

The early morning sun filters through the swaying blinds, adding a sense of movement while the entire world is still fast asleep.

Like I should be.

I blink at my white bookcase, Captive in the Dark by CJ Roberts catching my eye under the twinkling fairy lights. I smile. The heroine, Liv, had Stockholm syndrome as well. In fact, Donnie kind of reminds me of the hero/antihero, Caleb.

He was my number-one book boyfriend for all of 2021. He kidnapped her, raped her, trained her to be another man’s slave and then tore the world apart and betrayed his alias to keep her.

Funny, ironic, really.

“Miss Relli?”

I snap my attention back to the two police officers sitting opposite me on my sofa, not at all concerned that they pulled me from bed at six a.m.

One of them is a lady, and the other is a middle-aged man—Constable Martin, I think he said.

I study him. His head is a square; he reminds me of the character from the cartoon American Dad.

I yawn the words. “Sorry, what did you say?”

“You say that you have known Mr Donatello Vaughn since you were a teenager? Is this right?”

“Yes.”

He scans his notes, the ink still wet. “And you met at a party, a mutual friend’s, who you can’t remember right now.”

“Yes,” I lie. It’s all a lie. “It was a long time ago. I partied a lot. I drank a lot.” I shrug, then shuffle my slippers because I am meant to be traumatised by seeing someone nearly die. That’s the normal response, emotion.

“Why didn’t you recognise his brother’s name your first day at court?” He looks up from his notes.

“I just didn’t. It’s been such a long time that I barely remember them, until recently. Otherwise, I would have said something before the trial began.”

I know that Donnie told me to blame him, to say he was extorting me. Kept me captive.

Basically, he wanted me to tell the truth. The complete truth apart from who actually tried to drown Oliver. But I can’t turn on him. I won’t. My eyes sweep across to Captive in the Dark again. Liv never condemned Caleb, not really.

She loves him.

“And his brother?” Officer Martin presses, tilting his head to get a better read on me. “Tyler Vaughn? His identical twin. Did you know him? Have you seen him?”