Chapter 17: Twenty-Two Seconds

The Scholars Welcome Dinner was held in the university's old reading hall, under a ceiling painted with gold stars.

Eighty people sat at round tables with white cloths.

There were the new scholars, the faculty who sponsored us, and the donors, in jackets and good earrings.

I wore my one dress, a gray one, bought secondhand.

The girl with the lanyard sat on my left.

Nate sat on my right, in a borrowed tie.

I had told him he could come if he sat still.

On Friday, the dean had laid the forged texts beside the real thread and closed the file in a quarter of an hour.

I should have felt safe.

At 7:40, as the salad plates were cleared, the doors at the back opened.

Brynn walked in.

She wore a white dress with a ribbon at the waist. Her hair was down. Her eyes were already wet.

She looked small, and lost, and lovely, and eighty heads turned toward her.

"I'm so sorry," she said, to the room. "I'm so sorry, I know I'm not on the list."

The director rose from the head table.

"Miss, this is a private event."

"I'm Cass's cousin." Her voice broke on it. "Please."

She pressed a hand to her mouth.

"She ran away from us and we've been out of our minds. I only want to see that she's safe."

A woman at the next table put a hand to her chest.

Brynn moved between the tables with her shaking hands held out.

"She has an allergy, you see. We don't know who's looking after her. I just wanted her to know that we forgive her."

Forgive her.

I put down my fork.

It was the cleanest line she had ever delivered, and I had to admire it.

Keep reading free with an account. Start Mom Hung Up on My Call for Help to Toast My Cousin, So I Vanished from Chapter 1, then sign up free to read the rest of this chapter.