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“Mom left,” Ella says, joining us. I don’t ask where she went.
“So?” I ask, staring at the ceiling. “What else did she say?”
“She did a lot of apologizing,” Ella says. I shake my head. Of course she did.
“She told us all about her research… basically the same stuff she said in Colorado, but with some extremely nerdy moments between her and this one over here,” Betsey says, hooking a thumb at Ella.
“But the biggest thing we talked about was how it’s going to work now,” Ella says, rolling onto her side to face me.
“Tell me,” I say nervously. “Can’t wait to hear what scheme Mom’s come up with this time.”
“It’s not a scheme, actually,” Ella says. “She’s letting us pick where we go to school.”
“What?” I ask, surprised.
Ella nods. “She said we’re going to go back to living as triplets.”
It’s what I knew was coming—it’s what this blue stripe in my hair helped ensure—but it feels like a lackluster victory. It feels like doing philanthropy for school credit—like someone forced you to do it.
We forced her.
“Only one of us can go back to Woodbury, and we all know who that’s going to be,” Betsey says, smiling at me. I think of school with Sean and can’t help but smile back. “Mom said El and I can choose different schools and she’ll have Mason do his best to get us in midyear.”
“That’s great,” I say, unable to make the tone in my voice anything but just… there.
“What’s wrong?” Bet asks, tipping her head to the side. “These are good things.”
“Don’t you guys see that Mom’s just trying to bribe us into being okay with everything?” I ask, annoyed that they’re being so naïve.
“Of course we get it,” Ella says, looking at me seriously. “If nothing else, this whole experience has let us see Mom’s true colors. But hey, if her guilt about screwing up our lives thus far gets me a seat in a classroom at a private school far away from David Chancellor, I’m all for it.”
“I look at it like my ticket to a totally new experience,” Betsey says earnestly. “I want old brick buildings and even older professors and… fall. I want to move to New England.”
Ella sucks in her breath as my head snaps in Betsey’s direction.
Bet smiles; she looks so lovely with her bright red hair. “Will you guys kill me if I ask to go to boarding school?”
Late that night, I wander into the kitchen in search of water; Mom’s sitting at the table when I turn on the lights. I gasp loudly.
“You scared me!” I say.
She laughs a little. “Sorry,” she says, “I couldn’t sleep. I was just thinking.” I don’t ask about what.
I move to the cabinet and get a glass, fill it, and chug my water. I put the glass in the dishwasher and turn to leave.
“Lizzie, come sit down a second,” she says.
I don’t want to, but I do it anyway.
“I’m sorry that I lied to you,” she says. It disarms me.
“It’s not okay,” I say quietly. “I don’t forgive you.” Then, “Mom, I know that you’re trying to make things right. I appreciate that you let Mason give us our identities, and that we can pick our schools. But…”
“You need time,” she says. “I know.”
“I’m not sure time will fix it,” I admit. “I really just…” I look her right in the eyes. “I don’t trust you anymore.”
She flinches, just a little, but enough.
