Wiping my face with my sleeve, I pulled out from the curb and drove the rest of the way in angry silence, my thoughts restless with questions about what Blythe knew, what Oliver knew, what Cody knew. And what else they weren’t telling me.

By the time we arrived at Austin’s house, my brain turned numb from overthinking. My body slipped into autopilot as I walked to the front door, Cody trailing in the dark behind me. Questions rattled around in my skull as I knocked. When the door swung open, I gasped. One look at his face and everything crashed down around me.

Chapter 16

Chapter 16

Felicity

“You!” I jabbed a finger at the boy secure behind a screen door, a dazed veil over his eyes like I had wakened him. I hoped I had.

I would have recognized that deviant face anywhere. That smug curl of his lips. Those cruel, piercing eyes. That wiry mutt-brown hair. The boy called Austin Miller. But back in fourth grade he went by Lee.

“You’re Lee Miller, the psychopath who bullied Vera so badly she had to switch elementary schools!”

“What? Who are you?” He looked wounded, but I was only just getting started.

“I’m Vera’s mother. And I want to know why you preyed on her after the damage you already caused her back in elementary school.”

“No, ma’am, I never—”

But it wasn’t his turn to speak. It was mine. “I’m guessing word got around about you so much that you had to change your name?”

“Ma’am, Lee is my middle name. I go by Austin now, and I adored Vera.”

“Bull. Don’t lie to me and pretend you have feelings for her after what you did. You scarred her for life.”

“I apologized years ago, and I would never hurt her again. I was just a stupid kid back then, but we moved on from that.”

“Moved on?” This kid was unbelievable! “You think an apology and a new identity make it all better? Her year was a living hell after you got the whole class chanting, ‘Vera, Vera, don’t go near ya.’ A sorry doesn’t fix that. She cried daily because of you. For months!”

“I know, and I—”

“Spare me your excuses. I just want to know if you tricked her into dating you so that you could finish the job. Was that the plan—pretend to like her then take advantage of her kind spirit and break her heart?”

Austin reached for the screen, ready to step outside.

“Stop right there,” I demanded. I searched behind me for Cody, who hung back near the edge of the stoop in the dark. “Don’t you come near me. I know what you’re capable of.”