CHAPTER SIXTEEN

GINEVRA

I had bolted out the door the moment I heard the whispered words that were shared between my siblings.

They had confessed to tampering with someone’s car.

That someone had been Julia.

When I zoomed off in my car, my fingers had begun moving against my phone’s screen frantically. I had been dialing Julia nonstop. To no avail.

With a groan of frustration, I threw my phone to the passenger seat, seemingly giving up dialing the number. In a split second, my foot was pressed firmly against the accelerator.

I drove like a crazed woman.

Long minutes passed and my phone buzzed. It was Julia.

“Aunty, you have to get out of that car!” I panicked. “It’s. . .it’s. . .”

My cry had been foolish. I could hear it, the chaos.

Tires screeching, her driver’s grunts, Julia’s strained breaths—it had begun.

I had been too late.

Julia hushed, “remember what I told you, Ginevra. Be smart, be aware, give them hell.” She breathed a shaky breath. “Be good for me while I’m gone, si?”

“You’re not going a