Sheila's POV
I heard footsteps running away from the pool house.
My heart stopped. Someone had been listening. Someone heard everything Jayden and I just said about the plan.
"Did you hear that?" I whispered to Jayden, grabbing his arm so tight my nails dug into his skin.
"Hear what?" he asked, but his face was already going white with fear.
"Footsteps. Someone was here. Someone heard us talking about—"
"About what we're going to do to her parents," Jayden ended, his voice shaking.
I felt sick. If someone heard us, everything would be ruined. All my planning, all my waiting, all my acting to be Amara's best friend—it would all be for nothing.
"We have to find out who it was," I said, trying to sound cool even though my heart was beating so fast I thought it might explode.
But deep down, I already knew who it was. There was only one person who would be walking around the yard this late. Only one person who was meant to meet Jayden here.
Amara.
Perfect, beautiful, rich Amara Kingston. The girl who had everything I wanted. The girl who never had to fight for anything in her whole life.
I closed my eyes and tried to think. If Amara heard us, what would she do? Would she run to tell her parents? Would she call the police? Or would she be too shocked to do anything?
"Sheila, what do we do?" Jayden looked like he was going to cry. "If she knows, if she tells someone—"
"Shut up and let me think!" I snapped.
This wasn't how tonight was going to go. I had planned everything so carefully. For three long years, I had been the perfect best friend. I smiled when I wanted to scream. I hugged her when I wanted to hurt her. I listened to her talk about how happy she was when it made me want to throw up.
Do you know what it's like to watch your best friend have everything you've ever dreamed of? To watch her get the boy you loved first? To see her parents give her everything while yours could barely pay the bills?
I used to live in a tiny room with my mom. We ate cheap food and wore old clothes. When I became friends with Amara, I thought maybe some of her luck would rub off on me. Instead, I just got to see up close how wonderful her life was.
Every day at school, people talked about how lucky Amara was. They said she was so pretty, so sweet, so perfect. They never noticed me standing right next to her. I was just Amara's best friend. Never important enough to matter on my own.
But the worst part was Jayden.
I saw him first. I liked him first. I dreamed about him first.
I was the one who talked to him when he was new at school. I was the one who helped him when he didn't understand the math tasks. I was the one who laughed at his jokes and made him feel welcome.
But then Amara walked into the room, and suddenly I didn't exist anymore.
It was like watching someone steal your favorite toy right out of your hands. Except this wasn't a toy. This was the boy I loved. The boy who was supposed to love me back.
"She's so amazing," Jayden would say to me, his eyes getting all dreamy. "I can't believe she likes me."
He would ask me to help him plan dates for her. He would buy her flowers and ask me what her favorite color was. He treated me like I was just there to help him make Amara happy.
That's when I started planning.
At first, it was just small things. I would tell Amara that Jayden said things he never said. I would make her worry that he didn't really like her. But she was too naive, and he was too crazy about her. Nothing worked.
Then I met Chairman Crain.
He came to one of my mom's work parties. When he found out I was friends with Amara Kingston, his eyes lit up like Christmas morning.
"The Kingston family has something I want," he told me that night. "And you might be able to help me get it."
That's when he told me about the company. About how much money the Kingston family really had. About how much power they had. And about how much he wanted to take it all away from them.
"Help me," he said, "and I'll make sure you never have to worry about money again. I'll make sure you get everything you deserve."
Everything I deserved. Finally, someone who knew that I was worth something too.
The plan was great. Chairman Crain would plan for Amara's parents to have a "accident." When they were gone, Amara would be too young and too sad to run the company. The board would take over, and Chairman Crain would be in charge.
But I needed Jayden on my side. I needed him to abandon Amara when she needed him most. I needed him to break her heart so completely that she would never want to come back.
It took months to find the right thing to use against him. But everyone has secrets. And Jayden's secret was that his dad owed a lot of money to very scary people.
"Help me destroy Amara," I told him last week, "or those dangerous people might hurt your family."
He cried when I told him what he had to do. He begged me to find another way. But there was no other way. This was the only chance I would ever have to get everything I wanted.
"Sheila!" Jayden's words snapped me back to the present. "Look!"
He was pointing toward the yard. In the moonlight, I could see someone running toward the house.
It was Amara.
She had heard everything. She knew about the accident. She knew about the plan. She was running to save her parents.
"We have to stop her," I said, already moving toward the house.
"Stop her how?" Jayden asked, running beside me.
I didn't answer because I knew he wouldn't like what I was thinking. But it was too late to change the plan now. Too late to go back.
If Amara got her parents before we stopped her, everything would be ruined. Chairman Crain was expecting good news tomorrow. The accident was meant to happen tomorrow night.
I couldn't let her ruin this. Not when I was so close to getting everything I'd ever wanted.
We reached the back door just as Amara was running up the stairs to her parents' room. She was going fast, but we were faster.
"Amara!" I called out, trying to sound worried instead of angry. "What's wrong? Why are you running?"
She stopped at the top of the stairs and turned around. Her face was white with fear, and her eyes were big. When she looked at me, I saw something I had never seen before.
She was scared of me.
"I heard you," she whispered. "I heard what you said about my parents."
There was no point in acting anymore.
"Yes," I said, walking slowly up the stairs toward her. "You heard everything."
Behind me, Jayden made a weird choking sound.
"How could you?" Amara's voice broke. "I trusted you. I loved you like a sister."
"And I hated you like poison," I said back.
For the first time in three years, I felt free. Free to say what I really thought. Free to show her how I really felt.
"You took everything from me," I continued. "The boy I loved. The life I wanted. The attention I earned. You took it all without even trying."
"Sheila, please," Jayden said from behind me. "Don't do this."
But I was done listening to him. Done trying to be nice. Done being the lost friend.
"Your parents are going to die tomorrow night," I told Amara. "And there's nothing you can do to stop it."
Amara's face crumpled like I had hit her.
"But first," I said, smiling for real for the first time all night, "we need to make sure you can't warn them."
That's when I pulled the small bottle from my pocket. The bottle Chairman Crain had given me. Just in case.
"What is that?" Amara asked, backing away from me.
"Something to help you sleep," I said. "For a very long time."
But as I stepped toward her, Amara did something I didn't expect.
She screamed.
Not just any scream. The loudest, most scared scream I had ever heard.
And suddenly, lights were turning on all over the house.