Page 109

When I get to my parents’ house, my mom is in full strategic mode. She’s got clippings from the town paper spread out in front of her, each one highlighting something laudable our family has done. There are sticky notes on some pages, filled with her elegant handwritten notes. She barely greets me when I come in, just pulling me down to sit with her on the couch.

“Now,” she says. “I don’t want to try to tell you what to say, but I think there are some things it would be important to highlight. This is a list of all the things our family has its hands in around Hope Falls. Buildings that wouldn’t exist without us, the maternity wing of the hospital, the little league baseball team that we sponsor so kids have somewhere to go after school, things like that. It’s important to remind people how deep our roots run here.”

I nod blankly. “Right, of course.”

“We’ll have to mention the… unpleasantness,” she says, making a face, “but we don’t want to linger there. Focus more on the recovery. This—” She hefts a stack of papers, sliding them across to me. “—is all the good work we’ve done since the scandal. All the ways our family has recovered. The Thornton name is still trustworthy, and still means something in Hope Falls. We have to remind everyone of that.”

“I don’t think anyone forgot, Mom,” I tell her.

But she shakes her head. “This is our moment, Ares. It has to be perfect. Your speech has to be the perfect high note to end things on. And speaking of that, I was thinking about the event order for the last few things. It would make more sense to move your speech to a more prominent slot, don’t you think? I know the Carters have some kind of performance planned, but I think your speech would be better in that spot.”

“You don’t have to do that,” I tell her with a frown. “It doesn’t really matter when I do the speech, and the Carters have been planning this for a while.”

Mom rolls her eyes. “You don’t need to jump in and defend the Carter girl,” she says. “And besides, with the rumors going around town around her, I think she has enough to deal with. Maybe it’s best if she doesn’t perform at all.”

“Mom.”

“What? I’m only saying that being caught with two men isn’t the sort of thing we want to promote in this town. Imagine the message that would send to people if we let her go up there, knowing what she did. You should tell your friends to steer clear of her.”

She says it flippantly, like it doesn’t matter, and that irritates me. It’s definitely not the first time she’s gone off about Brynn, but I hate it so much more now. “You don’t have to say things like that about her. She’s an adult, and she can make her own choices.”

“Yes, and we see where her choices are leading her.” Mom smirks, flipping her hair over her shoulder. “At least I did you the favor of keeping that girl away from you when it mattered most. Now you don’t have to be dragged into this scandal with her.”

Something about the way she says that makes me freeze. “What do you mean by that?”

“What?”

“What do you mean you did me the favor?”

“I didn’t mean me personally,” she says, grabbing a stack of papers and starting to rearrange them. I recognize that as one of her few tells. Whenever she doesn’t want to have a conversation about something, she starts organizing. “I just mean that you’re better off without her.”

“But you said you did it,” I press. “And how do you even know she was around me?”

“You went to the same school and lived in the same town, Ares. You could hardly avoid her. Now, can we get back to working on the speech? I didn’t call you over here to talk about the Carters.”

I frown, folding my arms. “But you brought them up. And that wasn’t some idle thing you said. Tell me what you mean.”

For a minute she just looks at me. There’s something in her eyes, something prideful and determined, but it wavers a bit as I stare her down. Finally she sighs, letting the papers hit the table with a thump.

“Fine, Ares. You want me to admit it? Fine. I found out about you and Brynn when you were in high school. I know you thought you were being sneaky about it, but you were a child. You didn’t cover your tracks well enough. I found out you were seeing her, and I couldn’t stand the thought of you sneaking around with one of the Carter girls. Of all the girls you could have chosen, it had to be her, apparently. I wasn’t going to sit idly by and let it happen. And then your father’s tax scandal broke, and I saw my opportunity.”

“Your opportunity to do what?” I demand, even though the shape of it is already starting to form in my mind.

“To get you away from her. I knew Genevieve was already jealous and willing to help me, so I paid her to take care of the problem.”

“The problem? Is that what you saw it as?”

“That’s what it was, Ares. You were young and foolish and not thinking about the big picture or the future. As your mother, it was my job to do that for you. So I fed Genevieve everything she needed to get between the two of you.”

My breathing sounds very loud in my ears all of a sudden, and my heart pounds in my chest. Before I realize it, I’m on my feet, staring down at my mother like I’ve never seen her before.

“How did you find out about The November Place?” I ask, my voice low and eerily calm.

“I overheard you on the phone with that girl one day, talking about it. Like I said, you weren’t as good at covering your tracks as you thought you were. It was what we needed to make sure the lie was convincing.”

There’s no trace of remorse or regret in her tone. She just looks up at me, explaining all this in a calm voice like I’m the one who’s in the wrong here.

I shake my head. “I can’t believe you did that. I can’t believe you would go behind my back and lie to me for all these years.”