Nessa stared at them for a moment, running a finger along the edge.

“Do me next!” Sadie-Grace said, with the cheer of someone who had clearly never had a bad haircut in her life.

I wondered if it was possible to give Sadie-Grace a bad haircut. That question remained unanswered, because Nessa seemed unable to talk herself into doing more than cutting off a fraction.

My turn rolled around, and the topic turned to what should be done with my bangs, which had grown out just enough that they no longer quite merited the term.

“It’s not that your bangs are horrible per se,” Victoria told me. “It’s that whoever cut them did it too bluntly.”

Five minutes later, I was the proud (read: somewhat apathetic) possessor of a new side bang.

One by one, the Candidates let the White Gloves take their scissors to our hair, though two refused and a third burst into tears the second the scissors bit into her hair. None of the changes were major. Most weren’t even readily visible.

This wasn’t about hair or having the right look. This was about trust.

Lily went last. Victoria ended up with the scissors. I shot her a warning look. I had no idea what Victoria’s deal was with Walker—if she liked him, or if her father had ordered her to get close to him, or what—but regardless, she wasn’t exactly a person I trusted with Lily, especially in Lily’s current fragile state.

Victoria circled Lily, examining her. “Your hair is long,” she commented.

“It always has been,” Lily replied.

There was a pause, and then Victoria tilted her head to the side. “Is that what you want?”

I don’t know what I want anymore, I could hear Lily confessing. Or who.

Victoria stopped her pacing, standing directly in front of Lily. The two of them stared at each other, caught up in some kind of silent standoff.

Lily held out her hand, palm up, and after a second’s delay, Victoria handed over the scissors.

“It’s just hair,” Lily said, bringing the scissors up.

Before I could say a word, she’d grabbed a chunk of her blond hair and sheared it off at the chin.

LABOR DAY, 3:38

“I’m out! Are you okay? I didn’t step on you too hard, did I? I tried not to step on you too hard.”

“I’m fine, Sadie-Grace. Now go.”

“I’m not leaving you.”

“You have to. I have no idea where we are, but you need to be somewhere else when she gets back.”

“I could try to find help?”

“Yes. Just go.”

FOUR WEEKS
(AND TWO DAYS) EARLIER

CHAPTER 47

I looked slowly from the long chunk of hair on the floor to Lily, who was still staring Victoria down.

“Hope,” Victoria said. “A little help here?”

Hope stepped forward and took the scissors from Lily’s hands.