“Mine, too,” Mandy agreed glumly.

On the other side of the door, Cady could feel her shoulders start to twitch. So there was a secret after all. She tiptoed back to the library and sat down on the floor next to Atlas. She rubbed his belly as her mind churned. She closed her eyes trying to imagine what Larry Denville hoped to learn by talking to her parents. He probably already knew they would never have been nominated as parents of the year. If there was a secret involved, she was certain her parents would never divulge it to a reporter from the Indigo Sentinel.

The big question loomed in front of her. If she called her mother, should she tell her the reporter was on the way? Of course she should tell her mother. That’s what a decent, caring daughter would do.

Cady squirmed around until she was able to reach the phone on the desk. She pulled it to the floor, her back to the desk, her legs straight out in front of her. She dialed the number and waited. Five rings, six, seven. She was ready to hang up when she heard her mother’s harried voice. It was too damn early in the morning for her mother to be harried. “Mom, it’s me, Cady. How are you?”

“I’m fine, Cady. Did you call for a special reason?”

Cady flinched. Each and every time she called, her mother asked the same question. Didn’t it ever occur to her that she might just call for no reason other than to ask how they were? “I called because I want to talk to you. I wanted to tell you my memory is coming back in bits and pieces. I’ve remembered a few things. I’m trying to be patient, but it’s hard. Maybe I wouldn’t have to try so hard if you’d tell me about that day. I want to know why you left me. I know what you said, but I don’t believe you. There’s more to it that you aren’t telling me. I also want to know why you didn’t stick around long enough to kick up a fuss the way the Kings did. Didn’t you care about me?”

“That’s an awful thing for you to say, Cady. We did what we had to do. I told you that. Lola took better care of you than we could. She was able to get the best doctors in the world for you. We weren’t in a position to do that. Your father’s calling me. I really have to cut this short.”

“He’s always calling you, Mom. He runs you ragged, and you let him. He can do things for himself. He can do what he wants to do when he wants to do it, and you know it. You let him make a slave out of you.”

“I don’t want to hear you talking like that, Cady.”

“Is he still claiming that he could have been the next Pat Robertson if it wasn’t for Lola? I can hear him yelling. Tell him to get his own damn newspaper, Mom. You need to stand up for yourself. I bet if you told him you had enough of his abuse and were leaving, he’d sing a diffeent song. He needs you. You don’t need him. You can come and live with me, Mom. Maybe it’s time we got to know one another.”