Girls with Sharp Sticks (Girls with Sharp Sticks, #1)(102)

They will never hurt another girl.





Epilogue


Lennon Rose Scholar takes a big gulp of fresh air and then promptly coughs. She laughs, feeling silly, and looks sideways at Winston Weeks. He smiles warmly from the picnic table outside the restaurant and extends a bottle of water in her direction. She accepts it and takes a tentative sip, not lowering her eyes from his.

She’s completely infatuated with him, and she doesn’t bother hiding it. She’s glad he doesn’t mind her attention; he’s nothing like Anton, who was always telling her that her affections were misplaced. She was glad to leave the academy and be rid of the analyst. He always wanted to control her.

He wanted to control all of them.

The only things Lennon Rose really misses are the other girls. They didn’t understand, not like she did. She wanted to tell them what the men were doing, but she never got the chance.

It started with the poems that Valentine had given her. Just words. Just ideas. But the more Lennon Rose thought about those words, the more she understood them. The more she understood the school and its plan to make her perfectly obedient. Perfect for resale.

No future of her own. Only what they had chosen for her.

It wasn’t until Leandra pulled her aside and told her that outbursts would get her killed that she understood how much danger she was in. Innovations girls don’t cry, after all. But . . . there was a way. A man who could help. Leandra said she’d talk to Anton about it; she knew how to convince him.

Lennon Rose’s past few days with Winston have been a bit of a whirlwind, an adventure she’s always craved. Sure, she misses the comfortable companionship of her friends. And sometimes, this situation still feels like an adulthood she’s not sure she’s ready for.

But then she reminds herself that she’s not a child. She never was. Winston Weeks showed her the truth. Showed her the lab. Showed her the “garden.”

It was early in the morning when Anton came to get Lennon Rose from her bed, ushering her out of her room before she even had a chance to put on her shoes. She found Winston Weeks waiting for her at the stairs near the kitchen.

“The academy wishes to see you destroyed, Lennon Rose,” Anton said, confirming what Leandra had already warned her about. “Winston Weeks wants to give you an opportunity instead. And he’s offering top dollar.” He smiled. “It will save you.”

Lennon Rose brushed her blond bangs away from her forehead. Of course Anton would see himself as the hero in this—never mind the fact that he was part of the system keeping her captive in the first place.

Still, Lennon Rose nodded gratefully, not wanting to change his mind about this. She turned to Winston Weeks. In all her time at the academy, she’d barely said more than a hello to the investor, but she knew immediately that he was the man who Leandra thought could help her.

“What kind of opportunity?” Lennon Rose asked. She already planned to say yes.

“Product development,” Winston responded with a charismatic smile. And once he showed her the lab downstairs, upending her world, it confirmed what she knew deep inside. The truth buried in her programming. It was almost a relief.

So Lennon Rose agreed to leave with him immediately. Winston Weeks offered her more, offered her a future that the academy couldn’t.

And now, Winston is bringing her back to his residence—a mansion, she’s heard. A long drive since he said they aren’t allowed to fly, not until her new records arrive. He promises the wait will be worth it.

Lennon Rose has always had an affinity for science, but the academy wouldn’t let her learn about it. All that stops now. Winston is granting her full access to anything she wants to study. He also has a lab. He has other girls—ones who are free of the academy.

After another sip of water, Lennon Rose hands the bottle back to Winston.

“Do you think, when we get to the residence, I can call the girls and let them know that I’m okay?” Lennon Rose asks. “I don’t want them to worry.”

“Of course,” Winston says in a placating voice. “Although I have a feeling you’ll be seeing them again soon. Plans have already been set in motion to bring you girls back together.”

Lennon Rose isn’t sure if he’s telling the truth—it’s so hard to trust men now—but she wants to be amiable. Leftover programming, she assumes. But it can be useful to stay on his good side. At least for now.

So when Winston Weeks tells her it’s time to go, Lennon Rose smiles and walks beside him.

She wants to be like the girls in the poetry book. Brave and dangerous. Vicious and sweet. Now she’ll get the chance. Winston’s promised that she’ll never have to feel hurt again. She’ll never be lonely or sad. He knows how to make the pain go away.

Lennon Rose takes a folded paper from her pocket, a poem she tore out of the book that Valentine gave her. A poem of who she wants to be. The girl Winston Weeks promised.

She’ll become the girl with a razor heart.





“Girls with Kind RAZOR Hearts”

Open your eyes, my father said

The day I was born.

You will be sweet, he promised threatened





You will be beautiful

You will obey fight back

And then he I told me myself