Sara Shepard - Twisted

TWISTED

A PRETTY LITTLE LIARS NOVEL

SARA SHEPARD

Dedication

To all the Pretty Little Liars readers and fans

Epigraph

Before you embark on a journey of revenge, dig two graves.

CONFUCIUS

Contents

Cover

Title Page

Dedication

Epigraph

Some friendships never die

TEN MONTHS LATER

Chapter 1 - Pretty Little Party

Chapter 2 - Furs, friends, and far-off giggles

Chapter 3 - Just another perfect political family

Chapter 4 - And now arriving from Helsinki...

Chapter 5 - Meet the Pennythistles

Chapter 6 - Oh, those insecure pretty girls

Chapter 7 - Touchy-feely

Chapter 8 - Youve got mail!

Chapter 9 - Trouble in Paradise

Chapter 10 - A star is born

Chapter 11 - Emilys got a swimfan

Chapter 12 - Finn Dining

Chapter 13 - Seduction and Secrets

Chapter 14 - Bffs 4-Evr

Chapter 15 - Hanna Marin, Role Model

Chapter 16 - What a cute little peikko Aria is!

Chapter 17 - Dance like no ones watching

Chapter 18 - Friends tell friends everything

Chapter 19 - A pictures worth a thousand tears

Chapter 20 - Nothing like that fresh mountain air

Chapter 21 - Some stripping and some teasing

Chapter 22 - The Bridges of Rosewood County

Chapter 23 - Whatever means necessary

Chapter 24 - Every guys fantasy

Chapter 25 - One big happy family

Chapter 26 - Things get steamy at the pool

Chapter 27 - Ahh, vacation memories

Chapter 28 - When push comes to shove

Chapter 29 - Dont ask, dont tell

Chapter 30 - Shes smarter than she looks

Chapter 31 - Congratulations, now eff-off

Chapter 32 - Ali, the cunning cat

Chapter 33 - The news they havent been waiting for

Chapter 34 - The girl on the beach

Chapter 35 - Dont close your eyes...

What happens next...

Acknowledgments

About the Author

Credits

Copyright

About the Publisher

Some friendships never die

Have you ever known someone with nine lives? Like that daredevil who broke seven bones in his body last summer but somehow led his team in goals this lacrosse season. Or the two-faced girl who sat next to you in geometryeven though she cheated on tests and backstabbed her friends, the bitch always landed gracefully on her feet. Mrow.

Relationships can have nine lives, toohow about the boyfriend you fought and made up with for two years straight? Or the conniving BFF you forgave again and again? She was never truly dead to you, was she? But maybe it would be better if she was .

Four pretty girls from Rosewood find themselves faced with an old frenemy they thought had gone up in flamesliterally. But they should know by now that nothing in Rosewood is ever really over. In fact, some long-lost besties live on to get exactly what they want.

Revenge.

Last one off the cliff buys dinner! Spencer Hastings double-knotted the strings of her Ralph Lauren bikini and scampered to the edge of the rocks overlooking the most beautiful turquoise ocean shed ever seen. That was saying a lot, considering the Hastings family had been to practically every island in the Caribbean, even the tiny ones that required a private plane to reach.

Right behind you! Aria Montgomery called, kicking off her Havaianas flip-flops and winding her long, blue-black hair into a bun. She didnt bother taking off the bracelets on each arm or the feather earrings dangling from her earlobes.

Out of my way! Hanna Marin smoothed her hands over her narrow hipswell, hopefully they were still narrow after the massive plate of fried clams shed eaten at the welcome-to-Jamaica fish fry that afternoon.

Emily Fields pulled up the rear, leaving her T-shirt on a large, flat rock. As she reached the edge and peered down, a wave of wooziness hit her. She halted in her tracks and covered her mouth until the feeling passed.

The girls jumped off the cliff and hit the warm, tropical water at exactly the same time. They surfaced, gigglingtheyd all won and lost!and staring at the The Cliffs, the Jamaican resort high above their heads. The pink stucco building, which housed the rooms, yoga studio, dance club, and spa, towered into the clouds, and several people loitered on their shaded balconies or swilled cocktails on the deck. Palm trees swayed, and island birds cawed. The faintest tinkling of a steel drum rendition of Bob Marleys Redemption Song floated through the air.

Paradise, Spencer whispered. The others murmured in agreement.

This was the ideal spring break retreat, the complete opposite of Rosewood, Pennsylvania, where the four girls lived. Sure, the Philadelphia suburb was like a picture-postcard, resplendent with thick, lush woods, expansive mansions, idyllic horse trails, quaint old barns, and crumbling seventeenth-century estates, but after what had happened just a few months before, the girls needed a change of scenery. They needed to forget that Alison DiLaurentis, the girl they used to admire and adore, the girl everyone wanted to be, had almost killed them.

Forgetting was impossible, though. Even though two months had passed since it happened, the memories haunted them, visions rising up like ghosts. Like how Alison took their hands and told each of them she wasnt her twin sister, Courtney, as her parents had claimed, but their best friend back from the grave. Or how Ali invited them into her familys Poconos house, saying it would be the perfect reunion. How, shortly after theyd arrived, Ali led them to an upstairs bedroom and begged them to let her hypnotize them just like she had done the night she disappeared in seventh grade. Then she slammed the door, locked it from the outside, and slid a note underneath telling them exactly who she was... and who she wasnt.

Her name was Ali, all right. But it turned out they hadnt been friends with the real Ali at all. The girl who wrote that note at the Poconos house wasnt the same girl whod plucked Spencer, Aria, Emily, and Hanna out of obscurity at the Rosewood Charity Drive at the beginning of sixth grade. Nor was she the girl with whom theyd swapped outfits, gossiped, competed, and crushed on for a year and a half. That had been Courtney all along, posing as Ali, stepping into her life shortly after sixth grade began. This Ali, the real Ali, was a stranger. A girl who hated them with every ounce of her being. A girl who was A, the evil text-messager whod killed Ian Thomas, burned down the woods behind Spencers house, got the girls arrested, murdered Jenna Cavanaugh for knowing too much, and killed her twin sister Courtney their Alithe fateful night of the girls seventh-grade sleepover. And she planned on offing them next.

As soon as the girls read the last horrible sentence of the letter, their noses twitched with the scent of smokethe real Ali had doused the house in gas and lit a match. Theyd escaped just in time, but Ali hadnt been as lucky. When the cabin exploded, Ali was still inside.

Or was she? There were lots of rumors that shed made it out alive. The whole story was public now, including the twin switch, and even though she was a cold-blooded killer, some people were still fascinated with the real Ali all the same. There had been claims of Ali sightings in Denver, or Minneapolis, or Palm Springs. The girls tried not to think of that, though. They had to move on. They had nothing to fear anymore.

Two figures appeared at the top of the cliff. One was Noel Kahn, Arias boyfriend; the other was Mike Montgomery, her brother and Hannas boyfriend. The girls paddled for the steps carved into the rock.