Page 71 of What Goes Around

The laptop slid from my hands onto the bed like it had burned me.

Home invasion. Murder. No suspect.

I lay flat on my back and stared at the ceiling until it blurred into nothing.

Ten minutes.

That’s how long it took for my hope to exist and die. Deep down, I had hoped, stupidly and quietly, that maybe she was still out there. Maybe I would find a trail. A name in a database. A woman who disappeared and then resurfaced somewhere warm and alive.

Instead…

I found a grave.

My fingers curled into the sheets.

A question surfaced then.

Where did Marissa fit into this?

Because she hadn’t been mentioned.

Not once.

Not as sister.

Not as family.

Not as anything.

Chapter 22: Nothing Stays Buried

The moment I stepped onto school grounds the next morning, I knew something was wrong.

The air felt… tight. Charged. Like the last breath before a storm breaks.

Students stood in tight little groups, heads bowed together, voices barely above whispers. Phones were out in nearly every hand.

Payton jogged toward me from the parking lot, breathless like she’d sprinted the entire way. She skidded to a stop in front of me, then blinked.

“Wait. Hold on.”

She leaned back and actually studied me, eyes dragging from my boots to my hair.

“Okay, first of all… wow.”

I raised an eyebrow. “Wow?”

She laughed under her breath.

“Yes, wow. Ashley, when did you become… intimidatingly hot?”

I snorted softly. “It’s still me.”

“No, seriously.” She reached out like she wanted to touch my hair, then thought better of it. “This suits you. You always had the face for it, you just… never used it.” Her eyes narrowed thoughtfully. “And now you look like you fell out of a magazine or something. You look… more confident. And taller. Somehow.”

“I didn’t grow overnight.”

“I don’t mean physically.” She grinned. “You look like you finally realized you’re allowed to take up space.”