The Twin Missing From the Family Photo novel · Chapter 7 of 24

Chapter 7: One Night

I pulled her inside and sat her on the mattress, because it was the only place to sit.

I took off her wet cardigan and put my own gray sweatshirt around her shoulders.

Her hands were ice.

"How did you get here?"

"A plane. Then a train. Then a car with a man who talked about his dog the whole way." She tried to smile. "I paid with my birthday money. Mom doesn't check that account."

"Does anyone know where you are?"

"They think I'm at the lake house with our aunt. I told her I needed a weekend."

I filled a mug with tap water and heated it in the microwave.

I did not know what to say to her.

For years she had been the sister I was not allowed to be angry with.

Now she was sitting on my floor, and I was angry with her anyway.

"You sat there," I said. "At dinner. You sat there and looked at your soup."

Ivy wrapped both hands around the mug.

"I know."

"Trevor held my hand and told me to call it off. Mom said I was killing you. You said nothing."

"I know, Nor."

"Why are you here?"

She stared into the water for a long time.

"Because of the photo," she said.

I went still.

"They deleted it in the car," she said. "Mom took my phone and went through the album. She said, Oh, look, there's a stray. She read the text from the stranger who took it, and then she deleted it from the cloud so nothing would back up."

"Was Dad there?"

"He was driving. He saw it in the mirror. He said, It's better this way. Ivy gets upset when she isn't in the frame."

"Did you get upset?"

Her face crumpled.

"I asked them to leave it," she said. "I said, Please, it's her graduation too. Mom said I was being sweet and that sweet girls shouldn't have to worry about things. And Dad turned up the radio."

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