“Of course not,” I whispered. My mind continued to spin, slow to process any of this. My dad was dead. Mom had been wiped. I was one giant freak. And all because of Olivia’s gift?

Rage, hot and sweet, swept over me. For a momentjust a momentI hated Olivia, hated her for something so beyond her control. Guilt was immediate, but it didn’t dull the raw hurting. Or stop the rush of relief from washing over me.

My trembling hands moved through my curls, pulling them back. “I always thought she hated me, blamed me for the accident. And I’d hated her for ithated that she pretended I was dead when I needed her. This whole time she couldn’t help it. Why didn’t you all tell me?”

Hayden rocked off his heels and sat down beside me, shoulder against shoulder, leg against leg. A muscle ticked in his jaw. “There isn’t a good enough reason for not telling you.”

The sound that came out of me sounded strangled. “Why? All of this because of what Olivia can do?” My hands fell to my lap and I stared at them. “They ripped my family apart. And for what? A gifta gift that turns people into the Grim Reaper?”

He grasped my wrists and brought my hands to his chest, to where his heart beat under his sweater. “None of this is your fault, or Olivia’s. There was no way you could know what had been done to your mom.”

Another thought struck me. Pure ice flowed through me. “Dodo you think they wanted me dead, too? And Mom? Whatwhat if they still want us dead? The stuff with the locker”

“No. Don’t even think that,” he said.

My eyes met his for a beat, and I pulled back. “Kurt can wipe memories. How many others are like that out there?”

“There’s no way of knowing how many share the same sort of gifts. We have a general idea how many gifteds have been born in the last few years, thanks to Liz’ gift, but we don’t know what they can do unless we investigate them.”

I took a deep breath, but the air felt like it got stuck in my lungs. I flopped down on my back and stared up at the shadowy ceiling. “Do you think whoever was behind the accident may be behind the stuff in my lockers?”

“I don’t know what to think.” He looked away for a moment. “But I don’t believe in coincidences.”

I ran my hands over my face. If I’d learned anything in the last two years, I’d learned I couldn’t change the past. I only had the future, no matter how craptastic it might seem.

“Are you dealing… with this?” His voice was so soft that I almost thought I’d imagined it.