Prologue
Hadley
PAST
“Hads,you know there’s no way she’s going to let you go.”
I leaned back against my bed and cradled the phone against my ear. “I think I can convince her.”
Jenna was silent for a moment before speaking. “I know you’ve got megapowers of persuasion, but your mom is on another level.”
I didn’t need my best friend to tell me that. I lived with my mother’s overprotectiveness every day. No,overprotectivewasn’t the right word. It was paranoia.
“I’m going to go talk to her now. I’ll call you back when I’m done.”
“Okay.” Doubt dripped from Jenna’s tone. She’d watched me go down this road too many times before.
But I wouldn’t let her doubt get to me. I was holding on to hope. I pushed to standing and started for the door. I paused as I pulled it open, listening. I could hear voices wafting up from downstairs and moved in that direction.
“It sounds like a herd of elephants is invading,” my dad called as I pounded down the stairs.
“Just one daughter,” I told him, rounding the corner.
He had a baseball game on mute as my mom worked on hand-stitching a quilt.
“Where’s Shiloh?” I asked.
Mom’s jaw tightened, and I knew I’d already made a misstep. I shouldn’t have asked. My dad gave me a smile that didn’t reach his eyes. The kind I’d seen far too many times during the past eight years. “She needed some air, I think. She’s in the barn with the horses.”
My sister practically lived out there these days. And every time she ran off, a muscle in my mom’s cheek fluttered, or her knuckles bleached white—as they were now.
I didn’t know what to say. Not when we were already starting here. Instead, I shuffled from foot to foot, rethinking my approach.
Dad patted the couch cushion next to him. “Take a seat and tell us what you’re working through in that big brain of yours.”
His words had my mom lifting her gaze from her stitching and eyeing me carefully. I swallowed as I sat, my throat seeming to catch on the movement. I tucked a leg under me. “I wanted to ask you something.”
“Go ahead,” Dad said.
I toyed with a loose thread on the couch cushion. “Jenna is going to a party at Toby Jacob’s house tonight. I know you’re not crazy about parties, but I really want to go. I promise I won’t drink anything but sealed bottled water. You can breathalyze me if you want. And I’ll text you every thirty minutes, so you know I’m okay. I’ll stay with Jenna the whole time.”
Mom’s knuckles lost even more color. “Hadley—”
“Are his parents going to be home?” Dad cut her off.
“Um, no. But they know he’s having the party. They’re in Portland this weekend.”
My mom tossed her stitching onto the coffee table. “I can’t believe the Jacobs would be that irresponsible. Letting a bunch of kids run wild in their home while they’re away. Drinking. Probably drugs. Anything could happen.”
“Now, Julia,” my father began, but Mom cut him off with a glare.
“Anything, Gabe. Absolutelyanythingcould happen.”
“But not to me. I’ll be so careful. I promise.”
Mom’s gaze shot to me. “You might be careful, but you could still get hurt because of someone else’s reckless decision. I won’t risk it.”
“Please, Mom,” I whispered. “Everyone in my class will be there. I don’t want to be the freak anymore.”