A Special Place for Women, Laura Hankin [brene brown rising strong .txt] 📗

need to discuss.” Her eyes landed on me. “It’s about Jillian.”

FIFTY-TWO

My breath caught in my throat as everyone’s faces turned to me. I glanced over at Margot, who shot me a look of confusion and barely suppressed panic. “She’s not who we think she is,” Caroline continued as wind rustled the ivy on the trellises. Holy shit, had Caroline found out about my family history too? Was she going to preempt what Margot had planned and try to claim me for herself, or present some sort of well-prepared legal defense as to how I’d forfeited any rights to my authority? The panic on Margot’s face grew.

Caroline stood up straight, lifted her chin. “She’s a journalist.” Somehow, I had not been expecting that at all.

“What?” Iris asked as the other women began to mutter, looking at me with growing distrust. God. Dammit.

“Well, yes. I mean, I was,” I said, my mind racing for the spin. “I told you all that. But the website I wrote for folded, and I realized I didn’t want to keep doing—”

“That was what you said, yes,” Caroline said. “But I’ve been making some inquiries over the last few days.”

“Wait. Why over the last few days?” Margot asked.

“That’s not important.” Caroline pressed her thin lips together.

Margot’s eyes narrowed. “Because you saw that she sided with me when you kicked out Vy, and you’re looking for any possible excuse to quash dissent?” She let out a hollow laugh. “I should’ve expected it. You’re such a—”

“She’s writing an article about us!” Caroline snapped. “A friend of a friend knows someone who works at the New York Standard, and they’ve heard whispers about some top-secret undercover story that they’re planning.”

Stunned noises echoed from some of the women like the wind had been knocked out of them, shock at my betrayal all over their faces. And anger too that I would dare to try and take away this clubhouse, this circle, from them.

“I knew something was off,” Iris said.

“No,” Margot said firmly. “No. Listen. She was going to write an article about us, sure. That’s why she wanted to join at first.” Margot turned to me. Things weren’t going how she’d planned, but she could still turn this around. “But you’re not going to anymore, right, Jillian?”

“Right,” I said, my face burning, my fingers trembling. “As I’ve gotten to know you all, I’ve realized—”

Caroline rounded on Margot. “You knew? You knew the whole time and didn’t tell me?” She gasped, as if she’d been slapped. “Because you knew that I would be the one who would go down, that I had the most to lose because the bribe came from me—”

Caroline cut herself off abruptly as the other women turned their shocked faces to her. “Bribe? What bribe?” Iris asked. Because of course Caroline and Margot had never told them that part. As far as the rest of the Coven knew, their only mistake had been elevating Nicole too fast, and she’d destroyed herself.

“I . . .” Caroline began.

“It was to fix a mistake I made,” Margot said to the others. “Don’t blame Caroline, blame me.” Then she turned back to Caroline, her voice rising. “And that’s not why. I kept it from you because you wouldn’t have wanted to take a chance, but I knew that she would change her mind when she realized who she was.” Down on the street below, a siren wailed, then faded away.

“What the hell do you mean?”

“She’s the third!” Margot said, coming to my side, putting her arm around my shoulder. As the others stared at me in confusion, I felt like a prize pig being presented at a fair, unsure whether my fate was to be feted or slaughtered. “The original founder who left the Coven—Jillian is her great-granddaughter. I found her.”

For the first time since I’d known her, Caroline was speechless. She opened her mouth, then closed it, then took in a shallow breath.

“That’s why I wanted to do more magic at Samhain,” Margot said to her. “Not to screw with you, but to show her what was possible. And now, she’s not going to sell us out. She knows that she belongs here. We’re whole again, and it’s time to get back to the important work.”

As the others whispered to one another, Caroline touched her hand to her throat, staring at me with a strange mixture of awe and joy and horror for what all of this meant.

“Margot,” she breathed.

“I know,” Margot said. “With the three of us, united, think of what we all could do.”

Caroline ran her eyes over me, from my face to my feet, seeing me in a new light, as my heart pushed against my chest. “Maybe we could—” she began, and for a moment I almost felt bad that Margot would get Caroline back on board only for me to ruin it all, but I kept my spine straight and my face composed. Then Caroline’s eyes locked at my waist, caught by something they saw there. In a low, ice-cold voice, she said, “What’s in your pocket, Jillian?”

I looked down. Ever so slightly, through the dark cloth of my robe, something glowed. Shit, I thought. “Shit,” I said. “I was all distracted texting before this and I forgot to put my phone away. That was dumb of me. I must be getting some messages—”

I fumbled to pull the phone out of my pocket to see a series of new texts lighting up my screen. “I am so sorry, I’ll go put this in the bucket,” I said, backing toward the door, my eyes flitting to my screen. I’d received a thumbs-up from Miles, plus a message from Vy: Don’t bother with plan. Done w/ Coven. It’s gotten all fucked up. But I didn’t have time to register what any of it meant because I needed to close out of the voice recording, stat.

I swiped over to the app but before I could stop it, Caroline moved