Chapter 15: Not Yet an Answer

Cosima's POV

My mother called twenty minutes after Justin did.

"Come to the house tonight," she said. "Your father's home. Please don't make this worse."

I sat in my car in the office lot with the phone against my ear and Justin's voice still in my head.

She knows how to hurt us now.

Justin had offered to come with me. I had said no, and he had said, "I'll be in the car anyway," and I had loved him for not arguing.

At seven he parked across the street from my parents' house and turned off the engine.

"Go in," he said. "If you want out, text me one letter."

"Which letter?"

"Any. I'll know."

He took my hand, turned it over, and pressed his mouth to the inside of my wrist.

I walked across the street with my pulse going there.

The living room had every lamp on.

My father sat in his recliner with his arms folded.

My mother perched on the edge of the couch with a tissue already in her hand.

Cora sat in the middle of the couch in a soft peach sweater, and Reed sat beside her, holding her hand.

He did not look at me.

"Sit down, Cosima," my father said.

"I'll stand."

"Sit."

I sat in the hard chair by the piano.

"Channel 5 got a call," Cora said. "A woman at a diner. She says the girl in the lobby footage is you."

"That's what I heard."

"Is it?"

"I was at St. Agnes that day. I told you. My checkup."

"I know. And I believe you." Cora's eyes were enormous. "But Dad needs to hear it from you. That you're not the one who..."

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