“Well, yes, I’m her mentor and spiritual leader, and she confided in me when she was having a hard time.”

Summer shook her head; she didn’t believe a word he was saying. He went on speaking, anyway.

“She never got over your father. You know that. She lost her will to live.” His voice was low, like he was telling her a secret, but it wasn’t true—her mother had been fine. At the airport, she’s seen the signs of her old mother again, and then...

“What did you do to her in there?”

Her balled fist hit the table, rattling the orange juice in its glass. She registered the look of surprise on his face, but this time there was no remnant of fear on hers; he had killed her mother, and she was angry. He didn’t answer.

“I’m going to go to the police and tell them you killed her!”

His face changed, grew angrier with each word she said, but she didn’t stop. “You put her in that room and she died!”

The slap came like a whip, striking fast enough to bob her head and leaving a terrible sting.

She touched her cheek with her palm, trying to draw out the pain, staring at Taured not in shock but in anger.

“You can’t call the police, Summer, you can’t do anything. You belong here, to me. Especially now that your mother is dead. Where would you go? Do you know that her father molested her? That’s why she didn’t want to take you back. She knew that you were safe here.”

“She would have told me—” But she knew her mother hadn’t liked to talk about her parents. Had it been for the reason Taured said? No. It was another of Taured’s lies.

“Then why was she taking me to them?” Her voice was a wail, her mouth open; she knew how she looked. Standing up from the table, she took a step back, her fingers gripping the flesh of her cheeks in a panic. She molded the skin there as she thought, and an image flashed in her mind: eating food, spread out on a desk. Taured’s office. A desk? Was that real? She’d never eaten in Taured’s office, she’d never laughed as he touched her hair. Then she was back in her mother’s room, her shoulder blades pressing against the wardrobe.

But Taured didn’t answer her question. Instead, he said, “She was taking drugs to deal with her grief. We tried to help her, but she wasn’t thinking straight.”

Drugs? No, never. She tried to say so, but her voice was as wobbly as her legs. Her dad took drugs, and her mother hated them. Her mama would never.