Thanks for your patience guys ❤️ to make it up I'll definitely be doing a bonus update this weekend!! We have 3 more left, and so that means that in a week, TBS will be a complete novel 😱

Comment of Chapter 22 goes to @SleepyWaifu for pumping everyone up for reading the final chapters!

It was a blur. Golden chandeliers and glittering champagne. Sharp thorns and damp night air. The feeling that no matter how hard I ran, it would catch me. They would catch me.

"Sebastian," I said. "Sebastian, I need your help."

I was surprised he could hear me through the tears as I choked his name into my phone. I don't even know how far I'd made it before my legs had given way and I'd lost my footing, the earth pulling my shoe from my feet and leaves catching in my hair.

Of course, even though my brother had agreed to rescue me in an instant, he was still an hour's drive away. I threw my mask from my face, instead burying it in my hands as sobs overcame my body. Just like that, my entire life had been ruined.

Nicholas Clemonte was oblivious to the fact that my parents had attempted to sabotage his family's business with a secret marriage certificate. We'd been high school sweethearts for long enough for them to use us, but when he broke up with me my parents saw it as a threat. The idea was that it connected his assets with mine and they could pull strings behind the curtain. It was the last push I needed to run away from home.

I'd never signed the document. I'd never gone to prom. Instead, I'd adopted the last name Preston and gotten into college on my own. I'd taken up crappy jobs that had eventually landed me here.

But, it didn't matter. After we'd ended things, my parents had forged my signature and his, paid a witness and minister, and eventually it had landed in the hands of Penelope.

And since then, they'd tried everything to rope me back in. It didn't exactly look good for the pristine family image that their daughter had run away, and it especially wasn't good for their strategy, considering I was the key to their competitors son. This was why I couldn't have them in my life. They poisoned me, and they poisoned the ones that I loved.

Nic had been sucked in. And now he was in this mess too, because his family was as bad as mine.

I wasn't really sure what had happened after I'd ran from the party. Maybe Penelope explained to Felix that I was supposedly married. Maybe she'd shown Nic the certificate and he'd called the cops on me for fraud. Maybe it was time to come clean about my family to the authorities.

The idea had me terrified.

Sebastian's car finally pulled to the side of the road where I'd crouched into a ball on the edge of the forest. In the bright light I couldn't identify the car, but I figured it was either him or someone here to abduct the crying girl in the ballgown. Either way, I was ready to go with whatever was the universe's bidding.

But, it was my big brother. For the first few moments in the car I just cried, and then I finally managed to explain to him everything that had happened. From the moment I took the pull-tab from the poster on the bulletin board to the point I was face-to-face with my supposed husband.

I laughed aloud. This whole thing was absolutely insane.

Sebastian's knuckles were white around the wheel and he hadn't said anything for a really long time. I was wondering if he had had enough of this all, too. Maybe he'd abandon me.

But, he let out a long breath and finally reached over to pat my arm.

"I'm so sorry. So sorry."

He drove me to his house and made me a hot chocolate, giving me a hoodie to put over my dress. My arms were scraped from branches and I was still one high-heel short.

"You were right, you know."

I looked up from where I'd been blowing the surface of my drink.

"To run away."

That was a first. Sebastian, though he'd always supported me, had never approved of my recklessness when I'd cut ties and started college. He was constantly worried about me, always trying to convince me to run back into the safety net of our inheritance. But deep down, I'd always hoped that even he couldn't turn a blind eye to some of the things they could do.

"They always protected me, Mom and Dad. I've always felt like I need to impress them, like it's just what I'm supposed to do—follow in their footsteps. For you it was always different. They were cruel, trying to soften all the edges that made you my crazy sister."

"You had it easy," I agreed. To them, Sebastian was faultless. He'd aced his classes, his degree, and he was engaged to someone with an equally elite background.

"But that doesn't mean I shouldn't have done something," he muttered. "I ignored everything because it was bad—it's so easy to do that. I didn't even try to see what they were doing. I just wanted everyone to be... a happy family."

I closed my eyes, remembering the worst of Sebastian's betrayal—forcing me to face Mom when I wasn't ready, always trying to lace us back together like loose cords of a shoe. When I opened them again, Sebastian was giving me a sad smile, swollen with regret.

"You know, Seb, I'm starting to think everyone is just messed up. Mom, Dad, Penelope Algate... us."

Well, not quite everyone. Maybe not Poppy. Or Felix. But I couldn't give myself the luxury of thinking about them right now.

"Well, we were raised by the best," he said.

Remy had woken up and was wearing a robe, shuffling around the kitchen in his slippers. "You guys want some cake?"

"No thanks," I said, smiling politely. I still don't think Remy and I would ever get along, but if there was one thing that softened him up it was a girl crying in his living room.

"You know I'll never go back," I told Sebastian. "We'll never be that happy family."

"Well... I don't know if I can, either."

I looked around at Seb's huge house with its big yard and high fence in a gated neighborhood. He was safe here. Set up for life.

"I had no idea she literally stole your identity."

"And Nicholas Clemonte's," I whispered, rubbing at my temples. What was I going to do?

"I'll fix it," Sebastian said. His tone was so steadfast I looked up to test whether he was serious. "I owe you one. If I didn't keep forcing you to reconnect with them then you might have trusted me with this sooner."

"What exactly are you going to do to fix it?"

"Well, it seems undercover work is in our gene-pool," he joked. I could see Remy watching him carefully from the kitchen and stifled a laugh. The last thing Remy would want is for Sebastian to go against our parents. I think he was accustomed to the luxurious life they gave them. Who was the brat now?

"And Joselyn?"

I looked at my brother, his matching brown eyes boring into mine.

"You know you're better than all of this, right? You did what you thought you had to do to survive. You're not a bad person."

I had to break his gaze, looking down to my cup instead. "That doesn't matter, now. I messed it all up."

"But, you can fix things. Come clean for good. Then you know you did everything you could, you can have a clean slate. Whether that includes Felix or not, you can't control that."

"I think he's already moved on," I said. I replayed his expression in my head the moment Penelope had said the word husband. He looked like he was about to faint. And even if that never happened, it didn't change the fact that Penelope had brought his ex back, the ex he'd been made to believe cheated on him when he gave her everything. When he loved her.

Things were going perfectly to Penelope's plan. Her boyfriend's affair was covered, I was dealt with, and her puppets were back to being tightly on her strings.

"But have you? Will you be able to?"

Move on from Felix? Definitely not.

"Exactly," Seb said when I didn't reply. He used to do that all the time as a kid, ask me questions he already knew the answer to. He always seemed to know everything, back then. "Josie, you are the most genuine, headstrong woman that I've ever known in my life. And if he can give you up for anyone else then he isn't worth you. You deserve so much more than you've ever been given."

I felt the pressure of tears behind my eyes. I got up from my seat, balling the hem of my dress in my hand so I could walk over to Sebastian and hug him tightly.

Sebastian dropped me home the next day, after we spent the morning watching movies in his living room with Remy. Once we'd made pancakes and I'd changed into some of his spare clothes, bundling my dress beneath my arm, I was ready to face my old, falling-apart apartment again. By now, after all the mess Penelope's money had gotten me into, it was comforting.

Feeling like Cinderella, I ditched my single shoe into the trashcan in the corner of my room once I got in. I didn't want any more reminders of last night. I washed the tangles and leaves from my hair and put on my favorite mom-jeans and ugly sweater.

I wished it were as easy to feel like myself on the inside.

I finally checked my phone. I'd been scared to—wondering what terrible things Penelope had to say, or even the others. Surely they'd found out by now. I saw a bunch of missed call notifications and decided to ignore them, logging onto Instagram instead. Apparently, I wanted to torture myself.

Poppy had posted a picture of her and Ella in the maze, and Penelope had uploaded a bunch of pictures in her dress with people I didn't recognize. The others hadn't added anything from what I could see on my feed, but I found myself typing Felix's handle into the search bar, anyway.

Nothing had changed on his profile since last week, but I started scrolling. I stopped when I was years back and I saw the first photo. Felix and Paisley. His tan skin and white smile against her white freckled face. A perfect couple. Her features looked so delicate, where in comparison mine were so heavy. Heavy brows, a heavy jaw. I hated comparing us, but I couldn't help it. What was Felix thinking?

I had to stop before I started crying. I felt a heavy knot tie itself in my chest. Heartbreak. I had never really felt it like this before. I mean, my parents had broken my heart a hundred times. Sebastian had, too. Nicholas had dumped me a week before prom, but compared to this it felt like a papercut against a knife to the chest. It burned like nothing before.

An unknown number flashed on the screen. I stared at it blankly, debating whether to pick up. Maybe it was Nic, or someone who worked for Penelope. But even in my defeated fear, I found myself picking up, gingerly holding the phone to my ear.

"Hello?"

"Josie." Ella's voice sounded relieved. "Thank god, I was hoping I found the right number."

"Uh..." My heart was thudding loudly in my ears. "I know you're pissed with me, and you should be. I was so stupid, I thought maybe if I warned her, she wouldn't reveal my—"

"This isn't about that. Yeah, I know, you fucked me over. Whatever. There's something bigger," she said quickly. "Can you meet me?"

"Okay."

At nightfall I called an Uber to take me to the address Ella had given me. It looked like it was a shopping mall, but it'd be closed at this time of night. Sure enough, when I arrived it was dark and empty. And very spooky.

Maybe this was Ella's revenge. To have me beaten and left in an alley somewhere. I dialed Seb's number, ready to call, when I saw her walking my way, her hands in the pocket of a heavy jacket, the faded illumination from the streetlight bouncing off of her neon green hair.

"Hey," she said, her lips crooking to the side. She stopped when she was a few yards away. "I know this is creepy as fuck."

"Well, yeah," I said. I wrapped my arms around my torso and looked around. "Why did you want to meet?"

"Come on, let's be less dramatic. I used to work here, I still have my staff key."

I followed Ella as she let us into the empty mall. It was exceptionally terrifying in the silence as we found a table in the darkened food court.

"Look, I did some digging." Ella's eyes looked almost frenzied, and again I questioned my safety. "I told Cole."

I felt like my lungs might give way. "You told Cole what?"

"That Penelope had hired me to spy on him."

I looked at her like she was crazy. "What the fuck?"

"I know, I literally violated the stupid contract she made for us. Whatever. But, this has gotten way too messed up to be some side-job now, don't you think?"

I swallowed hard.

"He wasn't pissed. He wasn't even surprised." Ella's lips curled in a smile that I might have called sadistic. "Do you know why?"

I didn't say anything, I just waited for her to continue as her hands gripped the table top in suspense.

"Penelope and Cole were never really together."