“I’ll kill you, you old cow!” I lunged at her, but she was surprisingly quick on her feet and jumped back as I fell forward, smacking my jaw hard against the porch floor. Cody scooped me up like a pile of wet rags. As I brushed myself off, the woman leered at me triumphantly, tapping the ash off the cancer stick she held against her chunky hip.

“You sick woman! How could you say that to another mother? Expect a visit from the police!”

“Bring it on, bitch!” the woman cackled. “Come on, boy.” She flicked the smoldering butt into the bushes and headed inside. Austin stood gawking, his lips mouthing an apology. “I said come on!” She cuffed his ear with the flat of her hand. Austin followed her, dragging his spindly legs like a wounded spider, while Cody hauled me toward the car.

“The nerve of that lowlife white trash,” I seethed. “Somebody like her talking that way to somebody like me!”

“Enough, Felicity! Calm down!”

“You expect me to calm down after what she said? They’re probably behind Vera’s disappearance!”

Cody nodded with a calmness that annoyed me while he nudged me in through the passenger-side door and took over the wheel.

“Don’t listen to them. You can’t put much stock in anything they say. Clearly she’s got her own issues to deal with. Are you okay?”

“I’m fine.” I was anything but fine, but I didn’t want to be coddled right now. I’d had enough coddling to last a lifetime. I was stronger than they knew; they just wouldn’t let me flex my muscles.

I laid my head back against the headrest as Cody drove, allowing the silence to overtake me.

“What big family secret about Sydney was Austin talking about?” he asked after several turns.

Marin hadn’t told Cody. She had kept my secret for me. There was that loyalty again.

When I didn’t answer, Cody persisted, “Is Syd Squid okay?”

I didn’t want to think about it, let alone talk about it. But I couldn’t hide it any longer. Not after all the other secrets that seemed to haunt every person in our family. I was so sick and tired of the secrets, the betrayal, the lies. Everyone was hiding something. I had no idea who to trust or where to go anymore. Too many vaults to open, too many mazes to get lost in.