It was strange. She never spoke about her past to outsiders.


    "I used to be in the same boat," Juniper replied evenly.


    "Used to be?" Coralie tilted her head, wondering if the alcohol was making her delirious.


    "Yeah." Juniper chewed her bubblegum, her expression calm. "But they came back to life."


    Well, not entirely. She still hadn''t found her parents or her sixth sister. She wasn''t entirely sure they were all alive.


    "Wait." Coralie rubbed her temples. She definitely drank too much. Her brain waspletely fried. She was having auditory hallucinations.


    "I found my familyter on," Juniper exined, blowing a massive bubble.


    The moment it popped, she regretted saying it. Wouldn''t that just make Coralie feel worse?


    "That''s amazing." Coralie looked at Juniper with pure envy, aplex mix of joy and deep loneliness swirling in her eyes. "Ms. Payne, you have incredible luck."


    "It''s not that great," Juniper said, staring back at her with absolute sincerity. A heavy knot tightened in her chest.


    She was terrified that Director Evans would never wake up from hisa. And she was even more terrified... that her sixth sister really had died in that fire.


    "You have to keep looking forward."


    Coralie brushed her long hair over her shoulder, her gaze fixed on Juniper''s face. "The ones left behind have to live well. Don''t you think?"


    She was smiling, but the overhead streemp caught the glimmer of unshed tears in her eyes.


    Tch. Look at me, aplete tragic mess, trying tofort someone else, Coralie thought mockingly.


    "Who was in your family?" Juniper asked, genuinely curious.


    "My family?" Coralie paused, about to answer, when a man suddenly stumbled toward them from the shadows.


    He was clearly drunk, swaying heavily on his feet.


    "What are two beautiful littledies doing hiding out here?"


    The man''s eyes lit up when he saw Juniper and Coralie. A sleazy, predatory grin spread across his face. "Come on,e have a drink with me. I''ll spoil you and buy you whatever designer bags you want."


    Juniper stopped chewing her gum, her eyes narrowing into dangerous slits.


    "Get lost," Coralie snapped, her face turning ice-cold. She instinctively grabbed Juniper''s hand, her voice radiating protective authority. "Don''t be scared. I''ve got you."


    They were in the back gardens, far from the main banquet hall. If they screamed, no one would hear them. Juniper looked so small and fragile; Coralie wasn''t about to let this creep terrify the poor girl.


    Juniper slowly turned to look at Coralie. The woman reeked of alcohol, was entirely


    barefoot, and her hair was a messy tangle from the wind.


    Exactly who is protecting whom here?


    "Don''t y hard to get, you little tease." The manshed out, missing Juniper''s arm as the alcohol fueled his rage. He started cursing


    Molently "Do you have any idea who the hell I am? Do you know what happens to people who cross me?" Cóntent


    "Oh? What happens? Please, enlighten me," Juniper said. She tilted her chin up, her gaze dark and entirely indifferent. There wasn''t a trace of fear in her voice.


    "Don''t engage with him," Coralie said, trying to maintain some semnce of reason. She stepped squarely in front of Juniper, urging her, "Ms. Payne, you need to run."


    "Think you can run?" The man was provoked. Spewing obscenities, he lunged forward. "Once I set my sights on someone, they don''t get away."


    As the man''s filthy hands neared her, Juniper''s eyes went cial.


    She was just about to teach him a permanent lesson when-


    "Back the fuck off! You think a dog like you has the right to touch her?"


    Coralie moved faster than Juniper could even blink. She snatched up one of her stilettos and mmed the heel directly into the man''s skull.


    "If you don''t get the hell out of here right now, I swear to God I will end you!"


    Her family was dead. The love of her life was dead. She had finally found someone who felt like the little sister she had lost, and she was going to let some drunken bastard bully her? Over her dead body.


    Juniper''s heart skipped a beat. Was she imagining things?


    The fiercely protective, utterly unhinged way Coralie was acting right now... she was exactly like Ebony Fox.