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He was her one good thing.
He was written on her skin, too. But no one would ever see that but her.
“I’ll be right over there, if you need me.”
“All right,” she said, closing the door and going back to her papasan chair. She reached for her cigarettes again. She lit another one, the flame shaking so badly this time that the light made a zigzag pattern in the darkness.
She picked up one of Oliver’s photos and set it in her lap, not looking at it, just letting it rest there as she patted it comfortingly.
Chapter Twenty-one
When she gave her statement, Charlotte tried not to seem too nervous, saying as simply as possible, “She raised me, but I ran away when I was sixteen. I don’t know where she’s been, or what she’s been doing all this time. I cut ties with her a long time ago, for obvious reasons. She wanted money tonight. That was the reason for the knife. But I don’t have any money. I just have this condo.”
Sam screamed the entire time, “She’s not real! She’s not real!” Until she was finally led away.
An officer walked across the garden to talk to Lucy, who spoke to him through a half-opened door. She apparently refused medical attention, because the paramedics, who arrived shortly after the police, left without seeing her.
Charlotte, Zoey, and Oliver then silently cleared the rest of the broken glass from her bedroom while Mac remained outside, talking to an officer who had stayed behind, someone he apparently knew from school.
He walked back inside after the officer left and at last those strobing emergency lights, which had been making the entire garden look like a carnival, disappeared. “He told me this in confidence,” Mac said, “but Samantha Quint is apparently wanted for felony burglaries going back several years. She’s probably looking at some serious time.”
“Was that really your mom?” Zoey finally asked.
“Yes,” Charlotte said. “But I haven’t seen her in a long time.”
“Why did she keep calling you Pepper?”
They were all looking at her. “It’s just a name she gave me,” Charlotte said. “I always liked Charlotte better. It’s late. You should go to bed.” She turned to Oliver. “Will you walk Zoey home and stay with her awhile? I don’t want her to be alone.”
“Of course,” Oliver said.
Charlotte then pointed a warning finger at him. “Just stay with her. Nothing else.”
“Charlotte,” Zoey said, embarrassed.
“Come here,” she said, drawing Zoey into a hug. “I know that must have been scary for you,” she whispered into Zoey’s hair. “I’m sorry.”
“You’re hugging me,” Zoey’s muffled voice said into Charlotte’s shoulder, where she was holding Zoey’s face to her.
Charlotte pulled back. “What?”
“I didn’t think you were a hugger.”
“Come on,” Oliver said, taking Zoey’s arm.
Zoey seemed to sense that something had changed, had shifted. The crack was open and there was no sealing it back. “I’ll see you in the morning?” she asked, but Charlotte just smiled.
As soon as they left, Charlotte turned to Mac. “Look after her for me.”
“What are you talking about?” He followed her into her bedroom, where she opened her closet and grabbed a tote bag. She tried to be deliberate, thinking of just what she needed, but she ended up stuffing random clothing inside. She’d sort it out later.
“I stayed too long and I got careless.” What she really meant wasI stayed too long and I got happy.Either way, the result was the same. “I have to leave.”
“Where are you going?”
“I don’t know. The next place on the list, I guess.” She grabbed a small box and put some henna supplies inside. She would empty her account when banks opened in the morning, but she couldn’t close the account with Charlotte’s name on it yet, because she needed to sell this place first. Then she would have to change her name, her whole identity, again. The thought was too overwhelming to fully grasp yet. It was like losing the real Charlotte all over again.
Like losingherselfall over again.
