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"Everyone needs to feel comfortable and welco a lock of ash blond hair behind her ear The four-carat dialinted under the overhead lights "Besides, I thought Great-great-grandpa’s portrait scared you"

"It scared Melissa, not me," Spencer mumbled In truth, she liked the kooky fareat-grandpa Hastings’s lap Great-great-grandpa was also the spitting is abode after her parents’ divorce and bought a loft in don Philadelphia It had been Mr Pennythistle’s idea to swap out the portrait with the grisly Civil War tableau, surely wanting to expunge all evidence of Spencer’s father froh the front door and be greeted by a bunch of rearing, angry steeds and bloodied Confederates? Just looking at the battle scene stressed Spencer out

"Dinner is served!" a voice trilled from the kitchen

Melissa, Spencer’s older sister, popped her head into the hall She’d offered to cook the faht, and she wore a black apron that said GREEN GOURMET across the front and silver oven mitts on her hands A thin black velvet headband held back her chin-length blond hair, a pearl necklace encircled her throat, and understated Chanel ballet flats adorned her feet She looked like a younger, fresher version of Martha Stewart

Melissa caught Spencer’s eye "I made your favorite, Spence Leratefully, knowing this was a gesture of solidarity The sisters had been rivals for a long time, but last year, they’d finally put aside their differences Melissa knew Spencer wasn’t adjusting well to the new fa a hard tis Spencer didn’t dare talk about with her sister--or with anyone

Spencer followed herherself to call hi a baking dish in the center of the table Their stepsister-to-be, Aer than Spencer, perched in the corner seat, napkin pri a pair of low-heeled booties Spencer had picked out for her on a recent shopping trip in New York, but her hair was still frizzy and her shiny cheeks were desperately in need of foundation

Amelia scohen she looked up and saw Spencer, and Spencer turned away, feeling a prickle of annoyance It was clear A her brother, Zach, sent away to military school Spencer hadn’t meant to out Zach to his father But when Mr Pennythistle had walked in on Spencer and Zach in bed together, he’d assue Spencer had only announced that Zach was gay to get Mr Pennythistle to stop hitting his son

"Hey, Spencer," another voice said Darren Wilden, Melissa’s boyfriend, sat on the other side of Aarlic bread "What’s new?"

A fist clenched in Spencer’s chest Though he noorked security at a museum in Philly, until recently Darren Wilden had been Officer Wilden, the chief investigator in the Alison DiLaurentis murder case, and it had been his job to sense when people were hiding so Could Wilden know about Spencer’s new stalker, who--of course--went by A? Could he suspect what she and her friends had done to Tabitha in Ja on the collar of her blouse She was being ridiculous There was no way Wilden could know about A or Tabitha He couldn’t possibly know that every night, Spencer had bad drea the awful day in Jaain Nor could he know that Spencer read and reread articles about the aftershocks of Tabitha’s death as often as she could--about how devastated Tabitha’s parents were How her friends in New Jersey held vigils in her honor How several new nonprofits had sprung up to conde, which hat everyone had assumed had killed her

But it wasn’t what killed her--and Spencer knew it So did A

Who could have seen theht? Who hated them so much to torture them with the infor directly to the cops? Spencer couldn’t believe that she and her friends were yet again faced with the task of figuring out who A le suspect A hadn’t written Spencer or the others another note since that harrowing newscast teeks ago, but Spencer was sure A wasn’t gone for good

And what else did A know? A’s last , as if he or she was privy to other secrets Unfortunately, Spencer had a few more skeletons locked in her closet Like what had happened with Kelsey Pierce at Penn last summer--Kelsey had been sent to juvie because of what Spencer had done to her But surely A couldn’t know about that Then again, A always see?" Wilden took another bite of crispy bread, his gray-green eyes on her "That doesn’t sound like the ind schedule of a soon-to-be Princeton student"

Spencer pretended to wipe a spot off her water glass, wishing Wilden would stop staring at her as though she were a paramecium under a microscope "I’m in the school play," she mumbled

"Not just in the school play, you’re the lead--as usual" Melissa rolled her eyes good-naturedly She smiled at Mr Pennythistle and Amelia "Spence has starred in every production since preschool"

"And you’re playing Lady Macbeth this year" Mr Pennythistle sank cereany chair at the head of the table "That’s a challenging role I can’t wait to see the perfor heat rise to her cheeks

"Of course Nicholas is cos squeaked "It’s marked on our calendars!"

Spencer stared at her reflection in the back of her spoon The last thing she wanted was ainterest in her life Mr Pennythistle was only co him

A passed around "I’ether an orchestra concert for charity," she announced "A bunch of girls at St Agnes are going to be rehearsing here for the next feeeks, and we’re going to hold the concert at the Rosewood Abbey Everyone can cones was the snooty private school Amelia attended, an institution even more obnoxiously exclusive than Rosewood Day She’d have to figure out a way to get out of attending the perfornes--or at least she used to Spencer didn’t want to risk seeing her