“No! No, Grey, no one thinks that,” Mom said. “He left because he thinks he knows who’s doing it.”

“What?” I asked, my voice now barely a whisper. “W-who? Did he say?”

“No, we were sitting here trying to figure out something . . . anything that would make someone want to do this, and suddenly he just froze. His head snapped up and he froze. It was like he wasn’t even here anymore. Then he just started whispering, ‘No, no, she wouldn’t.’ We asked what was happening, and he just took off saying he would be back.” Mom shrugged sadly, like she didn’t know what else to say.

“She?” I stumbled over to the table and sat down roughly as I tried to think of any girl who would do something like this. My first thought was LeAnn, but I pushed it aside when I remembered how she’d been acting the last couple weeks. I stared down at the wood of the table as I tried to think of anyone else.

Grabbing the house phone sitting in the middle of the table, I dialed Jagger’s number, but his voice mail eventually picked up. I ended the call without leaving a message, and set the phone down before placing my head on the table. I didn’t know who this person might be, but hopefully Jagger was right. Hopefully this would all be over soon.

Jagger

August 13, 2014

“CHARLIE!” I ROARED, slamming the door to my mom’s house behind me. “Charlie, where are you?”

Mom rounded the corner that led from the kitchen to the living room just as I hit the living room; she looked carefree even with Keith screaming in her arms—her expression confirming that Charlie was here. “What is wrong with my oldest son?” she asked above the cries.

“Stay out of this, I don’t have time for your bullshit tonight,” I hissed as I walked past her.

“Jagger, honey. Calm yourself. We just need to be calm. This house is a love-only zone.”

I turned on her just as a man I’d never seen before stepped in behind her and took Keith from her. “Shut up, Mom! Just shut up! Stop pretending to be some free-spirited hippy who doesn’t have a care in the world, when you and I both know who you really are!”

Her eyes narrowed and her face looked pinched for a second, showing the woman I knew was there deep down, then she relaxed back into the mask I’d grown up knowing, and the man spoke.

“If you want me to call the cops on you, keep it up.” His tone was deep and full of authority. “You can’t just come in here and threaten your mother and scare the baby.”

I snorted. “Threaten? Hardly. And he was already crying before I got here. And who are you anyway, number eight?” Without waiting for him to respond, I turned around, heading for Charlie’s room. “Charlie!”

I yanked open her door and watched her jump as she scrambled to pull off her headphones. “You scared the crap out of me!”

“Are you the one who’s doing this?”

Her eyes widened as the tone in my voice registered. “Doing what?”

“Don’t play with me, Charlie!” I yelled, hitting my hand against the door frame. “Are you the one doing all this to Grey?”

“Doing what?” she yelled back. “I don’t know what you’re talking about!”

“Ben’s wedding vows on her windshield. Messages to her from Ben’s f**king Facebook account! The envelope full of pictures of her and Ben in her mailbox today. Are you doing it?”

“What?” she breathed out, her hand covering her chest. “Wait—what? How is that poss—his Facebook?”

“I don’t have time for you to act like you don’t know what’s going on, Charlie! Tell me if it’s you!”

“Of course it’s not me! Why would I do that to Grey? How could I do that to her?”

“I think it’s time you should head on out,” Mom’s latest man said over Keith’s screaming, and I turned to glare at him. Stepping inside Charlie’s room, I slammed the door and locked it behind me.

“I can’t believe you would think I could do something like—”

“You can’t? Are you sure about that? Because you are the one who wasn’t okay about Grey getting better. And even though you told me you had always wanted Grey and me together, the minute you found out we were together, you were the one to got upset about it! A week after you got back from your trip, this shit started. That is how I can think it is you! I love you, Charlie, but I swear to God, if you’re doing this . . .” I trailed off and raked my hands through my hair.

“But it’s not me! I swear it’s not!”

I flung my arms out to my sides and yelled, “I don’t even know if I can believe you right now! Those vows were in my goddamn place, Charlie! You, Grey, and me are the only ones who have keys to the warehouse unless Mom made a spare that I don’t know about. But even Mom isn’t smart enough to figure out how to hack into Ben’s f**king Facebook!”

“I don’t have my key!” she said quickly, and jumped off her bed, heading for her purse. “I lost all of my keys.” She handed me a set of two keys, and I looked at them.

“Why isn’t my key on here, and when did you lose it? And what are these?”

“I don’t know. I must’ve misplaced them when I was packing for my trip; I’ve been looking for them ever since I came back. But I took them out of my purse since we weren’t taking my car and I was afraid of losing them on the trip, all I took with me was the key to the house just in case Mom was gone when I came back, and I kept it in my wallet. The only way I’m driving my car is because of the spare key.”