The day of Mariana’s accident, Henry had found this same tube of Raving Red on the oil-slicked ground of the garage where the boys had been working on her car. He’d been in a state of shock when the ambulance and the fire department finally left. He found the tube of lipstick and assumed it had fallen from the car or from Mariana’s purse when she came to check on it. She was chronically disorganized, always forgetting something in the boys’ car or up at the house. Plus, no other women had been in the shop in months. Still in a daze, Henry picked up the tube and shoved it to the back of the workstation, planning on returning it to Mariana whenever she returned from the hospital.
Only Mariana never returned. That tube of lipstick was probably still sitting in the exact same spot on the workstation.
And now, here was the same brand of lipstick in the same shade with Kennedy’s things.
Henry knew it wasn’t a huge coincidence for two high school girls to own the same lipstick, or to own the same perfume. But it was strange that Kennedy had this particular tube of lipstick and a particular perfume, and that Mariana had owned both.
Something wasn’t adding up. He popped off the tube’s lid, revealing the vibrant red waxy stick within. He’d seen Kennedy’s lips today, this same vibrant shade of red.
Henry didn’t know much about makeup, but he knew Marianadidn’t wear a lot and that her lips never looked like Kennedy’s.
The conclusion seemed glaringly obvious then: Mariana had never worn this lipstick.
A sense of unease flooded Henry. He got up and searched the gardens, but there was no sign of Kennedy. Thinking she may’ve gone in search of a bathroom, he started in the direction of the house. He found it odd that they’d never crossed paths, but he’d taken a while in the kitchen, trying to make everything perfect.
Inside, finding the guest bathroom unoccupied, Henry wandered from room to room. He still didn’t dare call out her name. If he hadn’t seen her belongings outside, he would’ve assumed she’d ditched him.
When he heard voices coming from upstairs, he followed the sound to Bram’s room. Unable to fight off his curiosity, Henry tiptoed closer and pressed his ear up against the door to listen.
“You don’t have a girlfriend anymore,” Kennedy said. “Why can’t we—”
“Because I want nothing to do with you,” his brother’s low voice cut in. “When are you going to get that through your head?”
“Never, Bram. I love you.”
All the blood rushed to Henry’s face. Kennedy was in love with Bram?
He felt like a fool. She had never been worried aboutAdamspotting her here with Henry. She’d never wanted to tour the mansion. She’d been hoping to see Bram.
“And I’ve been telling you for over a year that this is not goingto happen,” Bram said. “Nothing has changed.”
“Everythinghas changed,” she argued. “You’re single; you’re back at school. When I see you, I can’t think about anything but us together.”
“You need to get out of here. And if you show up at my house again,” Bram said, voice cool yet bladed, “I’m calling the cops. Stop messing with Henry to get to me.”
“You’ll change your mind,” she said, sniffling.
“No, I won’t.”
“Is there someone else?”
“Kennedy, get out of my house. Tell Henry you’re feeling sick and go home.”
“Please, Bram,” she begged.
“Let go of me,” he said, firmly. “You’re—I don’t want to have to—”
The voices were moving closer to the door. Henry hurried down the hall and descended the stairs. He couldn’t face Kennedy as she made up some excuse to leave, not with the apparent trouble he went to with the snacks on the table, the drinks. Instead, he fled out the front door and raced to the garage.
Apart from investigators, no one had really been in the shop in a year. Henry had taken to hiding his invention in here, stopping in from time to time to borrow tools. This time, he was looking for something else. That tube of lipstick he’d stashed on top of the workstation.
At first, he didn’t see it. Dust had collected. Parts had continued to arrive before the boys had a chance to cancel the orders, and theywere now stacked high on the workstation.
But Henry moved everything aside, and there it was, covered in a thin layer of soot: the lipstick tube in the same shade as the one with Kennedy’s school things.
He doubted very much that the lipstick had been Mariana’s. So then, had it been Kennedy’s? Was the tube Henry found with her things a replacement for the one she’d lost?
Bram said Kennedy had been chasing him for over a year. He said he’d rejected the girl’s advances, and yet somehow, he smelled like her. That sickly sweet perfume scent. She’d clearly been throwing herself at him, enough that Henry had picked up her scent on him. Despite the fact that Bram had been dating Mariana, Kennedy had been obsessed.
