“And if your dad sees it?”
“I’m not going to hang it on my wall, and he isn’t a snoop.” I pull at my sleeves. “You said there was something you wanted to show me?”
Jude grabs one of the journals. He opens it, flips to the middle, and shows me what he sees—a gap, like several pages have been removed.
Outside, a car door slams shut.
We move to Jude’s window.
Down below, the family car idles in the circular drive. Rafe hands a suitcase to the chauffeur, then slides into the back seat.
Jude and I look at one another.
A few moments later, we find Isabel in the conservatory, thumbing through mail with a glass of something far too strong for the morning.
“Is Rafe leaving?” Jude asks.
“For a stint,” she says, barely looking up. “Family matters to attend to.”
I think of his father, Thomas.
Then Frank and Rueben.
Are they still alive?
“Where is his family?” Jude asks.
Isabel gives her hand a vague wave, like it doesn’t concern her. Like it shouldn’t concern us, either. “Somewhere in England.”
25
A HIDDEN STASH
My mouth splits wide with a yawn as I plop my bag on top of my writing desk. I’ve worked the evening shift at Evermore every day this week. A favor to Maggie, who was struck by the same hellish bug that visited me a month ago. Walt took care of her while I took care of Evermore, and finally after school today, she returned with a vengeance and told me to take the weekend off.
I didn’t protest.
The week has wrung me dry.
Funny how I can go a whole month of school without any homework at all, thenbam! Tests, papers, projects, oh my. On Tuesday, I had a quiz in Probability & Statistics. On Wednesday, I had to convince my peers that paranormal investigations deserve scientific legitimacy in a five minutepersuasive speech. Yesterday, I had a test in chemistry I’m pretty sure I bombed. And tonight, before the clock strikes twelve, I have to submit an essay exploring themes inThe Scarlet Letter.
Not to mention, float building for the parade has officially begun. After Maggie dismissed me from my shift at Evermore, Harper and I spent two hours spray painting cardboard feathers for the Phoenix Float, and now I fear my palms might be permanently stained red.
Exhaustion drags at my eyelids as I remove my Chromebook and settle into my seat, slightly jealous of Twig and Naomi, who finished all their schoolwork early and are currently in Pittsburgh having the experience of a lifetime.
I shoot Twig a text.
How was day 2? Are you in heaven? Leaving me for CMU forever? OMG Twig, r u going to change ur life’s ambition from ghosts to robots!?
Yesterday morning, the student body lined the main hallway to cheer on the robotics team as they left for this most prestigious honor. The memory of Naomi’s game face and Twig’s smile makes me smile now. Those guys made their exit looking like the Ghostbusters on a mission.
With a roll of my shoulders, I force myself to focus. I cannot bomb this essay, too. But theVandenberg manor might as well be the sun, pulling my attention like gravity. All the windows are dark. Everybody is gone. Jude is with Isabel at a fundraising event with the snooty members of the FHPS. Tulane was leaving as I was arriving. And Rafe’s been MIA all week.
Somewhere in Englandaccording to Isabel.
I open the top middle drawer of the writing desk and remove three gemstones from inside. Rafe discarded them like they were counterfeit. But they aren’t. Jude had them appraised. Together, they’re worth more than Dad’s Bronco. I’m keeping them here, along with the portrait, in case Rafe decides he wants them back. Whenever he comes back. We don’t know when that might be. And Lainey Sikes has become a burr in Jude’s side.
Sometimes I wonder if I have, too.
