Read Online Perfected (Entangled Teen) by Kate Jarvik Birch - Free Book Online Page B

woman stepped farther into the foyer, pointing a long, skinny finger at her.
    “Of course it’s my business. It’s a complete injustice. I thought you’d come to your senses, but apparently I was wrong. To think that you and your husband are bringing this sort of barbarity into our neighborhood a second time . It’s unbelievable!”
    “Barbarity?” The congressman’s wife kept her voice calm, unlike the near shrieking tones the other woman’s voice was climbing to.
    “I’d say barbarity!” the woman yelled. “You’re keeping another human being prisoner. You think you’re so high and mighty that you can own another life. Well, I won’t stand for it and I’d bet most of the voters in our district won’t stand for it, either.”
    “I’m sorry you feel that way,” she said. “What does Patsy have to say about it?”
    The woman’s face grew red. “Patsy is a schnauzer. You can’t compare a person to a dog. It’s a completely different situation. She’s completely dependent on me. Besides, I treat her like one of the family.”
    “I don’t want to argue with you, Rhonda,” she said. “But I think it’s exactly the same situation. We are the owners of a pet that the United States of America has deemed entirely legal in all fifty states. Whether or not you agree with it is beside the point.”
    “That’s because people like your corrupt husband have passed legislation to make this sort of sick thing legal.”
    “If you’re going to start calling my husband names, I’m going to have to ask you to leave.”
    The woman raised her arm, looking as if she might strike, and I instinctively took a step out from behind Penn, closing my hands around the railing to steady myself. Maybe the movement from upstairs distracted the woman, or maybe she realized how inappropriate it would be to actually hit the congressman’s wife, because she lowered her arm.
    Our eyes met.
    “Is that her?” the woman asked, her voice suddenly becoming quiet, almost kind.
    Penn, who had been standing utterly still during the entire scene, stepped forward, pushing me back from the railing so that his body was between the woman and me.
    “I think it’s time for you to be going now,” the congressman’s wife said, guiding her lightly by the elbow to the door.
    “No, I only want to see her. You don’t have to hide her from me,” the woman said. She grabbed onto the doorframe and her voice rose again. “You! Girl!” she yelled at me. “Don’t let them trap you here.” Her voice was frantic. “Let go of me, Elise!” she bellowed. “You can’t keep that girl locked up here. She’s just a child. Look at her. I can help her!”
    And with that, the congressman’s wife shoved the woman back through the front entrance, slamming the wide wooden door with enough vigor that the picture frames shook against the wall.

Eight
    I sat in my room on the couch near the window, staring out at the last bit of gold staining the sky. I couldn’t place the feeling growing inside me. It was as if the flavor of Ruby’s butterscotch and Penn’s music still lingered on my tongue, a taste that was both bittersweet and totally divine.
    This place was more beautiful than I ever could have imagined, but it was more confusing, too. It felt as if a conversation was going on around me, but I could only hear bits and pieces of it, and now I was trying desperately to string those bits together to make a sentence that I could actually understand.
    The room was growing dark, but I didn’t feel like turning on the bright light of the chandelier that hung at the end of my bed. In the shadows, I almost became a part of the room.
    Miss Gellner had always admonished us to go to bed by nine o’clock each night. “Sleep feeds beauty,” she always used to say. But I wasn’t at all tired.
    Just as I was about to get up from the couch to crawl into bed, there was a small tap at the door. Before I had a chance to respond, the door cracked open, letting