Chapter 5: Touch Tank

I picked up my grilled cheese and took a bite instead of answering.

Nate waited.

"I can't tell you that," I said finally.

"Can't or won't?"

"Both. I made a promise."

"To who?"

I looked at him.

He looked back.

"You're protecting someone who let you do four and a half years," he said slowly.

"What would you do with a name, Nate?"

He rubbed his jaw.

"That's either the most loyal thing I've ever heard or the stupidest."

"Dot says stupidest. Every day for three years."

"I'm starting to like Dot."

He picked up both plates and put them in the sink.

With his back to me he said, "Then I'll judge you by what you do. Not by a file. Not by what you won't say."

"That's fair."

"It's not," he said. "But it's what I've got."

He turned off the hood light and went up the stairs.

On Saturday morning Shelby came back.

She let herself in with her own key, smiling.

"Lulu-bug! Ready for our Saturday?"

Lulu was at the kitchen table with a waffle. She looked at me.

"Aunt Shelby takes me places on Saturdays," she said. "It's our thing."

"The aquarium today," Shelby said brightly. "The otters, baby. You love the otters."

Nate came in from his office.

Shelby went up on her toes and kissed his cheek.

"I talked to Mom," she said softly. "She's so embarrassed. She'll never set foot here again. Can we just have today?"

He glanced at me.

I kept my face still.

I could stop this with one sentence.

The sentence would put my sister in prison and make me a liar under oath.

I didn't say it.

"Your security goes with you," Nate told Shelby. "And she's back by three."

"Of course."

Lulu climbed down, ran around the table and hugged my legs.

"Bye, Holly. I'll bring you a otter."

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