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CHAPTER TWENTY-FIVE
Abby slammed her locker shut, a spurt of hysterical laughter escaping her lips. Several people turned toward her, eyeing her like she was crazy.
You have no idea, she thought.
Just don’t think about it. You can do this. Just make it through the day. One class at a time.
If she hadn’t already been in so much trouble with her parents, she wouldn’t have even bothered to come to school, but knowing she would be dead if they got a call about her absence, she decided she’d better show.
For now, she took it one minute, one hour at a time.
Out of the corner of her eye, she caught a glimpse of Kaden, his sandy crop of hair bobbed as he entered the classroom they shared for math. He wore cargo shorts and a t-shirt she knew from experience would smell like citrus, fabric softener, and sunshine, and she longed to go to him. She wanted so badly to fall into his arms and unload everything she had discovered in the last twenty-four hours but couldn’t. And it wasn’t even about her deal with Mr. Oliver. Yeah, she had agreed to stay away from Kaden, but it was more than that. How could she tell him the truth? Never in a million years did she think this would be the secret, and the thought of explaining who her grandfather really was slayed her. She couldn’t do it. She couldn’t bear to see the look on his face or the thought it mi
ght somehow change the way he felt about her.
“Earth to Abs.” Cammie snapped a finger in front of Abby’s face, causing her to jump. “Where were you? Staring at lover-boy?” Cammie wiggled her brows.
Abby tried for a laugh, but the sound stuck in her throat. Tucking a lock of hair behind her ear, she adjusted her backpack over her shoulder. “Hey, do you think you can do me a favor?”
“If you go to the boys baseball game with me Friday. I know you’re taken now and all, but I’m not, and I’m dreaming of hot boys in baseball pants.”
Abby tried for a smile but failed miserably. “I don’t know if I’ll be allowed. I’m grounded,” she said, thankful for the punishment. The last thing she wanted was to go to a high school sporting event and pretend like her entire identity wasn’t just called into question.
“What?” Cammie scrunched her nose. “How could you do anything wrong? You’re like the world’s best daughter. You hardly ever even leave the house.”
“You’d be surprised.”
Cammie gasped, eyes wide. “Spill!”
“It’s no big deal. My mom got mad because I snuck out to see Kaden, that’s all.”
“Oh, midnight rendezvous? I guess this earns you a favor.” Cammie smirked. “As long as you at least ask if you can go to the game.”
“Done. But don’t expect much.”
“Okay, shoot. Whatcha need?”
“I need you to somehow get me out of lunch. Find an excuse to pull me away. Anything. I just can’t see Kaden today,” Abby said with a sinking in her gut.
“Uh-huh. So, something happened between you two? Something bad, I take it?”
“You could say that. It’s a long story.”
“Done. I’ll come up with something. I’m the queen of lies, remember?”
Leaning forward, Abby wrapped her arms around her, noting the shock in her eyes at the gesture. With a quick squeeze, she let go and took a step back toward her class as the late bell rang.
“Thanks,” she said and entered the classroom, ignoring Kaden’s gaze on her the entire way.
ABBY SPENT THE BETTER part of the day avoiding Kaden. Once school let out, she sat in her bedroom at home, trying to figure out what she was supposed to do with everything she had discovered.
She had no one to talk to. No one to confide in now that Kaden wasn’t an option. She didn’t dare drag Cammie into this either. She had been freaked out enough about all the murder talk the night they visited Lawson’s daughter that she hadn’t even mentioned it again.
To make matters worse, there would be no more letters from GG. Whoever had broken into Klein’s office had made sure of that, which meant Abby was on her own. Completely and utterly alone in the knowledge of this secret.
She stepped into the shower, allowing the heat from the water to soak into her skin until it turned pink, but no matter how long she stood under the spray, nothing helped to replace the chill in her bones. Nothing comforted her.
After she soaped up and rinsed off, she stepped onto the bathroom rug on numb legs, dripping water into the fibers of the plush mat while she toweled herself dry. She dressed in her pajamas, brushed her hair, and braided it, trying to distract herself from reality—her thoughts a constant cyclone, starting with Kaden and how the thought of losing someone she had known for such a short period of time could hurt so much, back around to her grandfather again. By the time she left the bathroom, it was ten o’clock.
