Good.
She padded toward her yard. But as she reached the hedges at the back of the property, a door banged in the barn, and a new thought struck her. What if her sister had seized the opportunity and gone inside the barn with Aria, Emily, and Hanna? She might be pretending she was Ali—or telling them everything.
She wheeled back around, her head throbbing. That had to be it! She couldn’t believe she’d fallen for it.
She doubled back toward the barn, feet slipping in the dewy grass. A door slammed, and she could just make out through the windows Spencer walking back inside. A crack sounded behind her, and she turned. Something was moving near the Hastingses’ patio. A person.
Ali’s hand flew to her mouth. “Courtney?” she whispered, too quietly for anyone to hear.
Only, it was two people, not one. They stuck close together, moving toward the side of the house and stopping by the Hastingses’ garden hose caddy. The taller of the two pushed the smaller figure up against the side of the house. Their bodies pressed together, and their lips met in a kiss.
Ali squinted hard. At first, she thought it was Ian and Melissa—they were around here somewhere. Then a car passed on the street, its headlights shining against the figures for a brief second. Her mother’s long blond hair and sharp profile shimmered into view. Ali gasped and looked at the taller figure, who was now caressing Mrs. DiLaurentis’s neck. The headlights touched on his face for a brief moment, illuminating his strong jaw, long and slender nose, full head of hair. He leaned Mrs. DiLaurentis against the side of the house with authority, as though he owned the place.
And then it hit Ali: He did own the place. The man her mother was kissing was Spencer’s father.
She wheeled backward, feeling literally struck down by the news. There was no way this could be true. Her mother hated Mr. Hastings, didn’t she? But then she heard her mother’s words on the phone: We just need a little more cash, honey. Just to pay the rest of her hospital bills…. she’s your daughter, too.
Her insides curdled. Mr. Hastings certainly had money to pay hospital bills—especially for a deranged daughter no one knew about. Perhaps this explained why Mr. DiLaurentis always seemed so outrageously jealous of the Hastings—perhaps he sensed that something was going on. But what had gone on? He’d gotten Ali’s mom pregnant while they were having an affair . . . and then what? She’d passed the twins off as Mr. DiLaurentis’s, clearly. Maybe she’d tried to drop it for a while . . . until things got bad between Ali and Courtney, when she needed Mr. Hastings’s financial help. Perhaps he’d helped them move to Rosewood. Got them a house next door so he could keep an eye on his daughter—and his mistress. How convenient, Ali thought acidly. Her father, next door, and she’d never even known.
Ali felt like she was going to throw up. Instead, she turned around and ran. That it was someone she knew, her best friend’s father, made it even worse. How could her mother never tell her this? How could they move next door to the Hastingses, her real father within arm’s reach but off-limits? And this made her and Spencer . . . sisters.
Mist swirled around her head, and she suddenly lost her bearings. She came to a stop in her yard—at least she thought it was her yard. Everything looked unfamiliar. The house glowed far away, up a long, gradual slope of grass. A tarp flapped next to her, and the moonlight caught a glint of a discarded tool on the ground. She hadn’t realized she was so close to the half-dug hole. One false move, and she could have fallen right in.
“It’s pretty shocking, huh?”
Ali jerked her head up. A figure stood opposite her, shrouded in shadow. Her face was tilted toward the kissing couple in the Hastingses’ yard.
“Looks like our family tree has a lot of rotten apples,” the person said, in a voice that indicated she’d figured everything out, too.
Then she stepped into the light, and Ali swallowed hard. It was her sister.
33 ONE LITTLE PUSH
For a moment, Ali couldn’t move. She stared at her sister opposite her. The girl’s eyes glinted. Her teeth glowed. Half her body was hidden in the mist, like she was a ghost.
Ali whipped around and headed toward the house. “You’re not supposed to be outside.”
Her twin caught her arm and dug her nails into her skin. “You’re not going anywhere, Ali.”
“Let go of me,” Ali said, trying to yank her arm away. But Courtney’s grip was firm. “I’ll scream,” she warned, fear rising in her voice.
Courtney chuckled. “No, you won’t. You won’t say anything.”
“Yes, I will,” Ali said. “Mom and Dad will come running.”
Courtney guffawed. “Um, didn’t you just see what I saw? Mom’s a little busy right now.”
“Then I’ll call Dad.”
Courtney’s smile stretched wider. “Dad’s passed out on the couch. Someone might have slipped something in his wine at dinner.”
Ali backed away, suddenly trembling. She really is crazy, she thought.
But “Courtney” just pulled her back. “And don’t think Jason’s going to come rescue you,” she whispered in Ali’s ear. “He doesn’t give a shit about either of us. And as far as your friends go, they all left. Some end-of-seventh-grade sleepover, huh?”
“Let go of me!” Ali exclaimed. Her arm was starting to sting from the pressure of her sister’s fingernails, and her heart was beating so fast she thought it might explode in her chest. Her nostrils caught another whiff of that cigarette. The source was close, but it didn’t seem like her twin had been smoking. “What are you doing out here?”
Courtney chuckled again, the most horrible sound in the world. “Oh, I just wanted to see what your life is like. My life. What possessed you to pick those girls as your new friends? To torment me? To ruin my reputation?”
“There’s nothing wrong with them,” Ali said defensively, suddenly feeling a rush of protectiveness for her friends. “They’re really sweet.”
“They’re really sweet,” Courtney mimicked. “Do you think they’ll still do everything you ask when they find out what you did?”
“They’ll never believe you,” Ali said, but even she heard the waver in her voice.
Courtney raised her chin. “They will if I tell them the truth about you.”
Ali tensed. All of a sudden, anger rushed through her, hot and potent. “The truth?” she asked. “And what would that be? How you manipulated me for years? How you got me sent to the hospital instead of you? How you stood there and told them I had to go away?”
“You did have to go away,” Courtney said, her voice eerily calm. “And you’re going to have to go again. You’re going to tell everyone what you did. And they’re never, ever going to forgive you.”
Fear streaked through Ali’s veins, but she stood her ground. “I’m not going anywhere,” she said, planting her feet in the wet, chilly grass. She laughed as confidently as she could. “Do you really think it would be easy for you to step into my life and be me? I’ve done things you aren’t capable of. I’m better at being you than you ever were.”