Stepdad and His Friends Bred Me During the Birthday Blackout novel · Chapter 3 of 48

Chapter 3: The Alibi

Her mother arrives crying burglary and claiming she was at Codi's party, Codi exposes the lie in front of everyone, and Starla whispers that she watched the whole night on the hall camera.

"Abram."

He was behind me in two steps.

He looked at the safe for a long time.

Then he reached in and touched the empty shelf.

"The founding certificates," he said. "The originals. And an envelope of your mother's. Sealed."

Breck filled the doorway behind us. "The certificates? The vote certificates?"

"Under the old bylaws the founders vote with the paper," Abram said. "No paper, no vote."

Rand came in last and stood very still and smelled the air.

He looked at me.

I didn't say it. I didn't have to.

"Nobody calls anybody yet," Rand said.

"Somebody robbed my house," Abram said.

"And somebody knew the code." Rand took off his glasses. "Let's see who mentions the safe first."

Nobody slept.

I sat on the sofa in my black sundress and one sandal with my new multimeter in my lap.

Breck made coffee on the gas stove and burned it.

At 1:12 the refrigerator shuddered and kicked on.

Every light in the house came back at once. The pool pump. The air. The microwave started blinking.

I was out the side gate before anyone else stood up.

The meter was back on the wall.

Seated in its socket, numbers turning, like it had never left.

The cut seal was gone.

The gravel was raked smooth where it had lain.

I held up my phone and scrolled back to 10:40, and there it was, face up in the stones, prongs to the sky.

Breck read it over my shoulder.

"Sparky," he said, very quietly. "Somebody came back while we were sitting right there."

At 4:40 I called my foreman.

I'd never missed a call-out in six years.

"There was a break-in at my stepdad's," I said. "I'm a witness. I can't make the hospital."

He breathed through his nose for a long time.

"Renner, you're the only one on that crew I don't have to babysit."

"I know."

"Don't make it a habit."

At six, Abram texted my mother:

The safe's open.

She didn't answer.

At 7:02 a white Range Rover pulled into the drive.

My mother got out of the passenger side already crying.

She'd changed into a pale blue sundress. Her blowout was perfect. Her left hand was bare.

Duane Pendergast got out of the driver's side in a fresh pink golf shirt.

Then the back doors opened, and two of my friends climbed out.

My lab partner from night classes. And the one who'd snorted.

They wouldn't look at me.

My mother came through the front door with her arms out.

"Oh my God. Oh my God, Abram. Our home."

She went past him to the hall and stopped at the office door and put both hands over her mouth.

"Not the certificates," she said. "Tell me they didn't get the certificates."

Rand was leaning on the kitchen island with his coffee.

"Nobody said what was taken," he said.

The room went quiet.

My mother turned around with her eyes wet and her chin up.

"It's the only thing in there worth taking, Rand. Everybody knows that."

Duane put a hand on her shoulder.

"Starla, sweetheart, sit down. You've had a long night."

"Who is he?" Abram asked.

"Duane manages my money." She dabbed under her eyes with one knuckle. "He drove me because I couldn't. I was up all night at Codi's party."

She turned to me with her whole face.

"Weren't we, baby? We threw you a surprise party downtown, and you never came. We waited for you all night."

My lab partner nodded at the floor.

"We waited," she said. "Till two."

I looked at my mother.

I'd been doing this since I was nine.

Yes. We were. She was with me all night.

The words were right there in my mouth, worn smooth.

I picked my phone up off the sofa instead.

"Funny," I said. "I saved the party."

I'd screen-recorded the story at 8:14, before I called her.

I turned the volume all the way up and held it out at arm's length so everybody in the room could see.

The rooftop played out loud in my mother's living room, and I watched the room instead of the screen.

My mother in a white jumpsuit, holding up her left hand.

The emerald.

Duane, in this exact pink shirt, kissing her ear.

And the caption, in big pink letters across the bottom.

SHE SAID YES!!! Surprise engagement for Starla and Duane, open bar all night!

The time stamp sat in the corner. 8:12 p.m.

Nobody in the room breathed.

The friend who'd snorted started to cry for real.

Breck said, "Huh. I guess it was a surprise."

Duane took his hand off my mother's shoulder.

Abram walked to the front door and opened it.

"Get out of my house," he said. "All of you. Not you, Codi."

My friends went first. They practically ran.

Duane went next, jingling his keys.

My mother went last.

She stopped beside me and put her cheek against mine, the way she'd kissed me goodbye at every school gate in Mesa.

Gardenia.

Her lips moved against my ear.

"The hall camera has a battery, baby," she whispered. "I watched your party."

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