Escaping Perfect (22 page)

“Jasper,” I said. “I'm sorry. I'm so, so sorry.”

His eyes were concerned, scared. He reached for one of my hands with both of his and held it tightly. “Lia, what—?”

Outside the windows, voices began to shout. The press.

“Cecilia! Cecilia, come to the window!”

I looked at Jasper guiltily, and his face flooded with understanding. In fact, he understood so quickly it was almost wrong.

“Oh my God, you
are
her!” he exclaimed. “I can't believe it. I thought it was you, but I—”

“You did?” I asked, panicked. “What? When?”

Someone pounded on the front door. Shelby yelped.

“At the lake that night. And then with the straw­berries . . . and in Nashville the other night something you said kind of clinched it, but I didn't think it was possible.” He said this in a rush, grasping onto my hand. I was so grateful that he was still grasping onto my hand. “Why didn't you tell me?”

“I couldn't,” I said, terrified tears spilling over. I felt like my life was about to end.

“Why?” Jasper asked again, his eyes pleading.

“Because.” My voice was a whisper. “I didn't want to go back.”

I envisioned my mother standing on the front porch in one of her severe suits, her fingers clasped in front of her
waist, her face fixed in a determined scowl. She'd come at last. Come to take every last thing away from me. My worst nightmare was coming true, right here and now.

“Jasper Case! We know you're in there!”

The three of us shared an alarmed glance. The oxygen was sucked out of the room. Why were they shouting Jasper's name and not mine?

“Miss Montgomery! If you can hear us, stay clear of the door. We're coming in!”

Jasper made a move for the living room, but before he took three steps, there was a bang, and a crack, and half a dozen men in riot gear were breaching the front doorway. They had guns. Big, ugly, terrifying guns. And they were all trained on Jasper.

“No!” I screamed. “Don't!”

“Hands up! Hands where we can see them!” they shouted.

Jasper flinched, a full-body convulsion, and backed up against the wall.

“What are you doing?” Shelby shouted.

One of the men whirled on her, gun at the ready. “You too! Hands up!”

Shelby complied, shooting me a terrified, shocked, and somehow also murderous glare.

“Down on the floor! Down on the floor!” the man in the lead shouted in Jasper's face. The barrel of his gun loomed ever closer to his chest.

“Stop it! He didn't do anything!” I cried. “He's just my—”

“Get her out of here,” the lead man growled.

Someone stepped up from behind and grabbed me, his arms locked tight around my body, pinning my elbows to my sides.

“No!” I screamed. “You have to listen to me! He didn't do anything wrong!”

But the men ignored me. They converged on Jasper and Shelby, forcing them first to their knees and then flat to the floor. As I was carried through the door, I heard the sound of handcuffs snapping around Jasper's wrists.

“Jasper Case, you are under arrest for the kidnapping of Cecilia Montgomery . . .”

Outside, an army of press was being pushed back by local police. A crowd of neighbors had formed off to the side, everyone craning their necks to see what was going on. As I was hauled off toward a waiting FBI van, I saw Jasper and Shelby being led out of the house, their hands cuffed behind their backs, their heads down.

“No, please. You have to listen to me,” I said to the officer manhandling me into the van. Tears spilled down my face, but I wiped them quickly away. “They didn't do anything.”

Without replying, the man shoved me inside and slammed the door in my face. I whirled around. There my mother sat, against the far wall of the van. The suit was just as I'd imagined, the hands clasped in her lap. But she wasn't scowling at all. In fact she was smiling.

“Hello, Cecilia.”

Acknowledgments

Thank you so much to Sara Sargent, who knows a good hook when she thinks of one, and to Sarah Burnes, who is such a great support in everything I do. Also, most humble thanks to Liesa Abrams, who swooped in like the Batgirl Editor she is and helped me find the right project when I needed it, and to Alyson Heller for bringing it all home. I love it when a great team comes together!

Emma Harrison has written several YA romances including
The Best Girl
,
Tourist Trap
, and
Busted
, as well as many TV and movie adaptations. When she's not writing, she loves to bake, work out, read, and watch way too much TV. She lives in New Jersey with her incredibly awesome husband and two perfectly adorable sons.

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This book is a work of fiction. Any references to historical events, real people, or real places are used fictitiously. Other names, characters, places, and events are products of the author's imagination, and any resemblance to actual events or places or persons, living or dead, is entirely coincidental.

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First Simon Pulse hardcover edition March 2016

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Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Harrison, Emma.

Escaping perfect / by Emma Harrison. — First Simon Pulse hardcover edition.

pages cm

Summary: To escape her extremely sheltered life, eighteen-year-old Cecilia grabs a chance to strike out on her own in Sweetbriar, Tennessee, where she is transformed by her first job, apartment, and love but always waits for her mother, a U.S. Senator, to find her.

[1. Runaways—Fiction. 2. Identity—Fiction. 3. Dating (Social customs)—Fiction. 4. Family problems—Fiction. 5. Tennessee—Fiction.] I. Title.

PZ7.H2485Esc 2016

[Fic]—dc23

2015001539

ISBN 978-1-4814-4212-1 (hc)

ISBN 978-1-4814-4214-5 (eBook)