I shrugged. “I have no idea.” I looked around. Everyone was sneaking glances at us but pretending to be super caught up in their own conversations. I was the giraffe at the zoo today. It was kind of like my first day after we moved here from New York. I reminded myself how quickly that had passed, how quickly I had made best friends and felt like this had been home all along. “I mean, this is bad. And it’s my dad, you know? I love him. And he’s such a good dad. And, Ben, I know he didn’t do this.”

Ben nodded at me in a sympathetic, oh you poor thing, you think he’s innocent way that irritated me. I crossed my arms.

“Okay,” he said, putting his hands up. “He didn’t do it.”

Then I let my scariest thought sink in. “What if he did do it?” I whispered. “I mean, I guess that changes things.”

“Two things can be true at once,” Ben said importantly.

This was why I loved him. He was so wise.

“Yes. Right. So, worst case, he can be a good dad and a criminal.” That made me feel better. Maybe my life wasn’t a lie after all. “But to be clear. He didn’t do it.”

“Noted,” Ben said. I thought about my mom. Poor Mom. She obviously had quit her job and her whole life to stay home with me, which had to suck. I mean, can you imagine if Taylor Swift had to cancel the Eras Tour because she was home with a preschooler? Shiver. And the reality was that, while I was sad and confused and kind of scared, I really wasn’t all that scared because my mom would take care of me. Full stop.

Her first attempt at that, our three days with my grandparents in Chapel Hill, had been interesting. My grandparents were very cool for a day at holidays, but more than that was a lot. Plus, I missed my friends, and I hadn’t really believed that Mom would pull off getting us back here before school started, so that kind of compounded things. But she had.

“Ladies and gentlemen,” Mr. Friedman’s voice boomed. “Let’s take our seats please.”

Ben winked at me and, for just a second, I forgot that my entire life was up in flames; I forgot that everything was falling apart. My friend Chloe texted me and our other best friend, Dabney. Have you seen Juniper Shores Socialite today?

We were allowed to have our phones at school; we just weren’t allowed to text in class, a rule I was 100 percent breaking right now. I rolled my eyes because that lady hadn’t been particularly kind to my family. Although, to be fair, she was great at spreading all the gossip, so the conversation definitely wasn’t only on my dad anymore.