I used to say this to him when we were kids, when we were just starting out. The words soured in my mouth now. I was trying not to be sick.

“Well, I might be in a little trouble, babe. And I need to get out of here before my dad finds out.”

That was when I knew for sure: whatever Bill Sitterly was in prison for was actually Jeremy’s fault. All the threads of my life were joining together, crossing. The patterns were repeating, the layers folding in on themselves. Somehow, even though I thought I’d moved so far past Jeremy and that life, he was back here. He was, quite possibly, responsible for this new chapter. I didn’t know how to fix it, how to make it right. So for now, I would ask as many questions as I could. I would remember every detail. And I might just free Bill after all.

Iris Overeager

I grabbed my backpack out of Merit’s back seat. “Thanks, buddy!” I said, flashing a grin at him. “Now go back to school so you can practice, and we can beat West!”

“You know, you could come back with me. Potentially save yourself from in-school suspension?”

Nervous butterflies invaded my stomach. I’d never even gotten detention before, much less ISS. But I needed my phone; I needed to call Oliver. If ISS was the trade-off for saving my dad, well then, I would get it a million times over. I waved Merit off and turned toward the house.

The garage door was open, so instead of going up the outside steps, I walked inside and in the back door of the bottom floor, which had a little half bath and a full mudroom. I was in a huge hurry, sure. But I also had to pee.

But voices from upstairs distracted me. I walked quietly up the first leg of the zigzag stairway and stopped on the landing where I could see Alice, at the head of the table, sitting with a man. They both had their backs to me.

I heard Alice say, “And how does all that relate to Bill Sitterly?”

My eyes popped open wide, and I barely managed to stifle my gasp. I crouched down on the landing, where I knew from lots of hide-and-seek with the girls that they wouldn’t be able to see me from the table.

“Well, because they were mostly his clients who I was, well…”

“Stealing from?” Alice asked.

“No, no, no. Not at all,” the man said.