“Do you really know something about this Sully guy?” Chase wheels around to face me. “I’m sorry. I shouldn’t be asking you. The last thing you need is to be put in the middle.”

He looks so sad, standing by the window, his shoulders drooping. It makes me want to hug him. Would it be weird if I did?

“Alex always comes out swinging if you corner her,” I tell him. “She’s been like that as long as I’ve known her. My mom used to call her Little Tiger because she was so fierce.”

“Little Tiger,” he repeats softly. “And what did your mom call you?”

“Little Owl.” I swallow hard.

“Really?”

“I was the worrier. Mom used to iron out my brow with her thumb. Like this.” I sweep my thumb up the bridge of my nose. Even now, the feeling transports me to a time where there were people who looked after me, and I grab on to the back of the sofa to steady myself.

“What did you used to worry about?”

“Being a big sister.” I take a big breath. “At Christmas one year, I stayed awake until midnight because Alex told our parents that she was staying at a friend’s house when she really went to a party. I didn’t want my dad to know, but he caught me watching for her through the kitchen window. He got it out of me and called the cops. Horizon was a tiny town. The cops pulled her out of that party and brought her home.”

When she got out of the cop car, she looked like a limp piece of cloth, sucking on her hair. I blink, releasing myself from the memory, from the trance.

“But Alex is such a stickler for the rules,” Chase says. “She’s all about safety and the truth and doing what’s right.”

She is now. I realize I shouldn’t have said any of what I just said. I’ve broken Alex’s rules. Panic washes over me like a salty sea.

“Look, I only told you that story because you asked. Don’t ever tell Alex you heard that from me.”

Chase’s forehead wrinkles. “Why not? What else doesn’t she want me to know?”

“Nothing.” Everything. “Chase. Please don’t tell her.”

He stares at me hard, blinking as he considers his options. I’ve closed the lid on Alex for now, but at least for a moment it was open and I gave him just a glimpse of what’s in there. I allowed him more doubt than Alex ever would.

Any bluster he may have had dissolves, and he turns back to the window. “You have my word.”

He says it so simply and with such exhaustion. I believe him. He’ll keep his promise. Relief floods me. I knew it. I knew we were allies. My hard work is paying off.