Page 16 of You Found Me

A hell with old-style charm, a tumbling waterfall, and stone steps fit for lounging starlets. A hell that smelled like roses and lilacs.

A hell filled with so many trees and hedges surrounding the back yard that it was easy to forget there was a city out there filled with life.

There were people just on the other side of that green wall, but they might as well be on another planet.

It was Piper’s idea of paradise, but it was just another reminder that despite the many things she and her sister had in common, there were a lot of ways they were very, very different.

Piper’s need to get away from everyone had always struck Della as strange and slightly terrifying. What good was a place like this without any people to enjoy it with?

The stoic, judgmental security troll they’d installed into her life didn’t count.

She’d been stuck here with Warden and the Silent Statues for seven full days.

Aweek.

Might as well be a year.

She tried hard not to resent the way she’d been handled by everyone. They all had her “best interests” at heart. They’d all “discussed” the fact that Piper’s house was the only safe place to stash her away from her “stalker.”

Her sisters slapped smiles on their faces and dragged her along with promises like “It’ll be just like old times” and “We’ll have so much fun!” And “We’ll watch the tour highlights and do karaoke!”

They weren’t exactly wrong. Itwasfun at first. The four of them had stayed up all night just like when they were kids, giggling over mishaps on the tour and watching silly shows and playing around with a new song. It made her feel like everything was right in the world.

Then two days later, Lizzie left for an event at the inn, Mattie went back to her island to work on wedding stuff, and Piper moved in with Blake to get ready for the movie they were about to shoot somewhere exotic and fun.

Della went nowhere and did nothing.

She’d been given a list of rules she was supposed to follow: no internet, no phone, no leaving. Then, she’d been left to spend every day with only her thoughts for company.

She didn’t like her thoughts. At all. They spiraled into dark areas she’d never known existed, and one in particular reared up and smacked her over and over and over.

Everyone had things to do and places to go and people to spend time with.

Everyone but her.

Emptiness sat in her chest so heavily that it pushed out all the air and made her eyes burn.

She blinked and glared up at the bright blue sky. “I should have stayed in New York.”

It was getting harder to ignore the little voices in her head that she usually drowned out by constantly going and doing and singing and laughing.

What are you really doing with your life? All you do is prance around on stage. What good is that to anyone?

That asshole stalker’s words had stabbed a little deeper than they had any right to.

I see how alone you are. How sad. How desperately you long for something more.

He was wrong. She didn’t long for anything more. Her life was full up with good things. She had lots of friends and lots of fans, and she was never, ever alone.

Except…

“Oh, for crying out loud, this is ridiculous.” She kicked her feet in the water, stirring it up into a frothy boil. “I’mnotlonely. I’mnotsad, and Idon’tneed anything. I’m just…bored.”

“Is everything all right, Ms. Bellamy?” one of the security statues asked from near the hedge. He was one of the nicer ones. He always gave her a smile and a quick nod when he came on duty.

At least, whenever the warden wasn’t around to see him do it.

“It’s fine. I’m fine.” She took in a deep breath and let it out in a long, drawn-out sigh. “Everything’s fine.”