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Ethan nodded. “Want me to go with you?”
“It’s okay, I just need a minute alone.” Then she stepped across the patio and made her way into the foyer of the resort. A cowhide rug splayed out in front of a giant fireplace. Potted orchids sat atop carved-stone tables, and silver-framed pictures of important-looking people dotted the walls.
As she passed through a long hallway, a hushed whisper stopped her in her tracks. Two people were talking just inside one of the dark conference rooms. She would have kept going, but she recognized the raspy smoker’s voice immediately.
“Have you seen her again?” Grandma said. Her quiet words seethed with anger.
“Y-yes,” a voice answered shakily. Emma clapped a hand over her mouth. It was Sutton’s dad.
She peeked around the corner. Mr. Mercer and Sutton’s grandmother were standing at the front of the room, near a big, white screen. Sutton’s grandmother’s face was pinched. The top half of her body arched toward her son.
“What’s wrong with you?” Grandma hissed. She looked like she wanted to slap him. “She’s toxic for this family. You need to stop this, now.”
“But—”
“No buts. What if Kristin found out?”
Emma blinked hard. Seeing her. Toxic for this family. What if Kristin found out?
Was Mr. Mercer having an affair?
I couldn’t believe it either. My dad didn’t seem the type. He acted like such an upstanding citizen, dedicated to his family and his surgery practice. Was everyone in my family keeping horrible secrets?
“Sutton?”
Suddenly, there was a footstep behind Emma. She jumped and turned, knocking into the long stone table against the wall. Thayer’s face swam before her eyes, and he whispered her name once more. “Sutton?”
But before Emma could answer, a huge, thin vase on the table wobbled precariously. It tipped as though in slow motion, tumbling to the floor and crashing into a thousand pieces.
In the conference room, Mr. Mercer and Grandma snapped to attention. Their gazes flitted to the vase, then to Emma. Blood drained from Grandma’s cheeks. Mr. Mercer’s mouth made an O. Emma’s eyes locked on Sutton’s dad. Running a hand through his hair, he barreled toward her, his eyes blazing.
“Oh my God,” Emma squealed, caught. When she turned, Thayer was no longer behind her, but ducking into the nearby men’s room. Giving the swinging restroom door no more than a passing glance, she sprinted toward the nearest door, and fled out of the resort.
I was tugged along behind her, away from my father, away from the party, and into the vast desert beyond. But something about the look in my father’s eyes, something about Emma running, all of it set wheels turning in my head. All at once, I was tumbling headfirst into another memory.
And it was one I definitely didn’t want to see.
16
ANOTHER ONE BITES THE DUST
THE NEXT TIME I SEE YOU, YOU’RE DEAD.
What a drama queen, I think, slipping the phone back into my pocket after pressing DELETE. But right on the heels of that thought is a tiny sense of trepidation. Maybe we shouldn’t have asked Laurel to take Thayer to the hospital. I know how bad she has it for Thayer. I know how much it would kill her to know that Thayer and I were secretly together. Sure, I’d kind of wanted to rub it in. Sure, I’d kind of wanted to show my sister yet again, Look! I’m way better than you. But maybe I’d pushed her too far.
I look around. It’s so dark in the canyon, I can barely see my fingers in front of my face, and my phone’s lost service again. I can just make out the road at the top of the incline. The pavement cracks, and pebbles crisscross the path in zigzagging lines. My heart pounds in my throat. I should have been in Nisha’s development by now. Am I lost? Did I take a wrong turn? I think about the stories I see on the news about people getting lost up here and never being found. What if that’s me? What if I die out here, and coyotes eat my bones?
I’ll never go to prom. I’ll never get that Marc Jacobs bag I had my eye on. I’ll never tell Thayer I love him again. I’ll never do anything I wanted to do.
My limbs feel weightless as I whirl in a circle. Desert surrounds me in every direction. I turn to look up at the canyon, hoping I can get my bearings. Rocks soar in a jagged arch, but none of their shapes look familiar. And as I’m swinging around, trying to figure out where the hell I am, I catch sight of a bench halfway up the cliff. Is that…a person looking down at me?
But then clouds obscure the moon and I can’t make out anything at all. You’re losing it, Sutton, I say to myself, shaking out my hands. Get a grip. Focus. You’re not going to die out here. You’re going to find your way out. And just because you and Thayer ran from some freak up here doesn’t mean that person is still around. I am Sutton Mercer, and if anyone can find a way out of this, it’s me.
An engine groans in the distance. I turn to see headlights blazing over the crest of the road. “Hey!” I scream, waving my arms. I’ve never been so thrilled to see a car in my life. I consider hitchhiking—I’ve done it before, and I really need a ride home. And suddenly, that’s where I desperately want to go. Not to Nisha’s. Not to Madeline’s. But home. All at once, I’m so eager to see my family it almost feels like a hunger pang. I want my mom to make me chicken soup and tell me everything’s going to be okay. I want my dad to tuck me in and assure me that the bad guys are never going to get me again.
I want to tell them I’m sorry for everything I’ve done lately, too. I’ve made things so tense at home, ignoring all their rules and being snippy with them at every turn. It’s just that with my eighteenth birthday coming up, I want to know about my birth mother—more about where I came from. I could have a whole other family out there that I don’t even know about. Maybe even a blood sister or brother. But each time I bring it up, my mom starts crying and my dad gets this thin-lipped expression like somehow I’ve wounded him to his core. I always get what I want, but my parents aren’t telling me anything, so I’ve been punishing them by partying all night with Mads or sneaking away to meet Thayer when he’s back in town.
