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“Dad,” I said, straightening my back. “Put Mom on the phone. Now.”
“Hold on,” he said, fumbling around on the other end.
“Hello?” Mom said. “Sweetheart, are you there?”
“Mom,” I said.
I was thankful that I could hear her voice but terrified that this would be the last time that I did. What if Akio’s parents did something to them? What did they even want? My parents had done nothing. Poison had been the one to expose the principal.
So many thoughts raced through my head. I couldn’t keep them straight.
“I can’t talk for long,” she said. “What do you need?”
“Please, be careful,” I pleaded. “Don’t drink anything. Don’t eat any food they’ve tampered with. They want to …” I could barely get the words past my lips. It hurt too much. “They want to kill you.”
Mom didn’t say anything for a long time, and then she must’ve put her hand against the phone because the next words were muffled. It sounded like she was talking to Dad. “Imani says that the roads are really icy right now and that we should head back soon.”
Walking toward Landon with my phone still pressed to my ear, I rested the top of my forehead against his sternum and tapped my foot on the ground, wanting them out of there now. “Mom?” I called.
“We’ll be careful on our way home, sweetheart,” she said to not give anything away.
“Okay,” I whispered, not wanting to hang up, but not wanting to alert Akio’s parents.
They probably already knew. Hell, they had probably sent the damn package. They had known when I was leaving school tonight and where the hell I was heading to. They must’ve been following me. Maybe tracking my every move.
“I have to go now, sweetheart,” Mom said. “Talk to you later.”
Then, the line went dead.
My stomach twisted, and I shoved my phone into my back pocket. Nerves shot up and down my arms, nightmares and thoughts haunting my fucking mind. I hoped that they’d actually come home tonight in one piece. I hoped that—
“No,” João said suddenly, still examining the finger. He spit on his thumb and dragged it across the splotchy red blood that covered the length of the flesh. When the blood disappeared, a tattoo with a date appeared underneath it. João froze, jaw tight and eyes full of rage. “Fuck no!”
“What is it?” I asked, eyes wide.
João snatched the package from Kai and stormed out of the room. “This is my mother’s finger.”
