He walks out without another backward glance, and I curse my brother for his stupid timing.

“Is that the next-door neighbor?”

Liam is seven years older than me. As a result, he doesn’t know Chloe’s family like I do.

“Why are you back?”

My brother shrugs. “I have time off work, and I haven’t been home for a while. With everything that’s going on, I thought—”

“You thought what?” I ask, standing up. It’s so typical of him to show up now. He’s ignored us for the last eighteen months and didn’t even remember to call on Mom’s birthday, but now he shows up? Several months after Chloe’s disappearance?

“I don’t buy it, Liam. You’re after money.” I walk past him into the kitchen, where I proceed to make a sandwich.

He saunters in after me, gazing around as if he’s never seen this room before, despite growing up here. His eyes land on the note on the kitchen island. Picking it up, he reads Mom’s scrawled handwriting, then tosses it back down and opens the fridge.

The butter is too hard, and my bread starts to fall apart. I’m tempted to give up and just have cereal.

“Where’s the pasta?”

I roll my eyes and shoulder him out of the way to grab the cheese. “I ate it. You’re a day too late for leftovers. That note is from last night.”

He watches me cut the cheese and pop a slice into my mouth.

“What?” I ask him when he continues staring.

“Nothing. You’ve grown, that’s all.”

“I would hope so,” I reply, placing the cheese slices on my sandwich and putting the cheese and butter back inside the fridge. “It’s been a year and a half since I last saw you.”

“How is mom’s new job going?”

I shut the fridge door. “She started it shortly before you left, remember? If you called home once in a while, you’d know she left because of the shift patterns. Speaking of jobs, how is yours going?”

My brother lives in a large city across the country, where he works as a mechanic. Why he couldn’t do that here in Skelton is anyone’s guess, but Liam had always dreamed of moving away.

“What was the neighbor doing here?” he asks, changing the subject.

I finish chewing before replying. “I ran out of firewood. Grayson offered to help me light the fire.”

“It’s his daughter, isn’t it, who disap…”

I nod.

“The boyfriend did it?”

My sandwich tastes like ash. I swallow down the piece in my mouth before throwing the rest in the garbage and walking back out of the kitchen. Liam is hot on my heels.

I whirl around at the bottom of the steps. “How long are you here for this time before disappearing again?”

“I—”

“Because it hurts Mom when you come home to visit and then vanish again for months without a word.” I don’t tell him that it hurts to be second best. Liam was always the favorite child. Mom never ignored him, but she still blames me. Somehow, it’s my fault he left home.