“But that’s not true! I’ve never been pregnant. I’ve only ever … I mean, it was just that one time, with Penn—that one time ever, actually—and it shouldn’t have happened. He gave me a ride home, and we were both upset, and I’d always kind of had a crush on him, so …” She shrugs. “And afterward, it was so awkward. I thought you knew, and you were mad at me. Or, if you didn’t know, I didn’t know how to tell you. And then the next week he got together with Daniela, and he basically never spoke to me again, and I was so embarrassed. So I just kind of …”

“You disappeared.”

She nods. “I didn’t know how much you knew. Or what to say to you. Or how to be around him. Then you found that poor baby, and all this happened, and I thought … I thought maybe everybody was right. Maybe she was yours, and I disappeared from your life right when you needed me most, and this whole thing was my fault, because if you’d been able to tell someone …” She shrugs. “That’s why I feel guilty. Because I abandoned you to deal with all this on your own.” Another shrug. “That’s what I thought, anyway. I mean, I did disappear when you needed me most, even if you weren’t pregnant. Right after your dad—”

“Don’t. Just …” I dig my keys from my pocket and click the fob. “Just get in the car.”

As I slide behind the wheel, something occurs to me. “Were you in school last Friday?” If she was in class all day—in front of witnesses—then there’s no way she could have been giving birth in the locker room.

Amira groans. “I went home in the middle of first hour. I was having a really bad period.”

I blink at her as I start the car. So much for her alibi.

“You don’t believe me, do you?” she asks as I pull out of the parking lot through the narrow rear exit. Away from Main Street. Away from the park and the protesters.

“I don’t know what to believe anymore.”

My father may have been a thief.

My mother may be a dirty cop.

My brother and my best friend may be the parents of a dead baby.

“I just … I need to think.” And based on the way she stares out her window on the drive to her house, I think she knows what I really mean by that.

This time, I need to disappear from her life. At least until I know for sure what’s going on.

Chapter Fifteen

FIFTEEN

“Hey. It’s two in the morning. What are you still doing up?” My mother drops her keys into the bowl on the coffee table and sinks onto the couch next to me. She looks half-dead.