Deep Betrayal (Lies Beneath #2) Read Free Page A

you can come home now.”
    “Oh, honey,” Mom continued, “I’ve missed you, but I’m so glad you got to walk with your class. Now bend down, we’ve got a present for you.”
    I knelt in front of her chair and she fixed a fine silver chain around my neck. “It’s a family heirloom from your dad’s side. The original chain was broken, so this one’s new, but the pendant … I think it must be very old. Isn’t it beautiful?”
    “Grandpa gave it to me before he died,” Dad said. “He wanted you to have it.”
    “A real keepsake,” Mom said as I studied the beach-glass pendant hanging from its copper fob. Softened by sand and water, the glass was the same green as Calder’s eyes, and it lay strangely hot against my chest.
    “I’m glad you made it, Mom. You too, Dad.”
    He said, “We’ve missed you, too, kiddo. It hasn’t been the same since you left.”
    I didn’t correct him by saying that I hadn’t left, I’d been
sent
. I didn’t want to pick a fight; it felt too good to have them here.
    An hour later, we arrived at the Badzins’ house. Inside, the air conditioner hummed and aromatic candles laced the air. Mrs. Badzin had brought out her white linens and good silver service. Several parents hovered around the buffet table where a platter of sushi and sashimi had center stage. I dunked a spicy tuna roll into soy sauce and shoved it in my mouth whole, bending over the table so the drips rolling down my chin wouldn’t stain my lace minidress.
    Rob grabbed me as I came around the corner, and he pulled me into a bear hug. “Congratulations, beautiful,” he said, stumbling a little.
    I pried myself free and shook my head. My mouth still full, I mumbled, “Knock it off, Wobby.”
    He laughed, saying, “C’mon. Everyone’s in the basement.” He pulled me by the arm, down the steps to where our friends were hanging out.
    Jules announced my arrival ceremoniously as I tripped in my vinyl platform shoes and fell awkwardly onto the futon with a self-deprecating “Ta-da!”
    I lay my head on Jules’s shoulder. “I’m so glad it’s over.”
    “Over?” Zach asked as he aimed a dart toward a small plastic target hanging on the wall. “It’s just beginning.” He let the dart fly, but it glanced sideways off the bottom rim and barely missed Jules’s foot.
    “Careful! You nearly killed me,” Jules said, pulling her feet up and under her. Zach shrugged.
    “So what’s up for tomorrow?” Phillip asked.
    Colleen Gilligan lounged on a lumpy, basement-worthy couch, her head in Scott Whiting’s lap. The two had been an item since sophomore year. “Beach?” they both suggested in unison.
    I couldn’t help but watch as Scott twirled a lock of Colleen’s dark brown hair around and around his finger. She looked up at him, her lips pulling into a small smile as he took off his thick glasses and curled his body to kiss her. For a second, I thought I could feel it myself. The soft meeting. The momentary heat. Voyeuristic, I know. But there it was.
    “What do
you
want to do, Lil?” Rob asked. “Does the beach sound good?” He dropped onto the futon next to me and swung an arm around my shoulders.
    “What? Oh. Yeah. That sounds good.” I let him leave his arm where it was. It was graduation after all.
    Phillip laughed. “We’ve got the Hancock seal of approval. Beach it is!”
    “Are you going to Square Lake?” Sophie asked, her small feet tripping silently down the carpeted stairs. “Can I come, too?”
    “Of course,” I said before anyone else could answer. I slipped off the futon onto the floor and pulled my sister into my lap. The baby-powder scent of her made me homesick. “I’ve missed you,” I whispered in her ear.
    “Me too,” she whispered back. “It’s been really bad without you.”
    The shine in her eyes brought on the guilt. All this time I’d been focused on
me
. How alone
I
felt. How worried
I
was. Why hadn’t I ever considered Sophie in all of this?
    She might have