“I called her, Jack. After I was cleared to go home, they allowed me to use the phone, so I rang up Belle. I told her exactly when I was coming home, and she offered to make sure Evelyn hadn’t hidden anything in my room. Anything that could scare me or—”

“Hurt you.” Jack’s head snapped up. “Did she find anything?”

“I haven’t had a chance to talk to her. The police were here for hours, and the detention center has strict rules about when you can call people.” He winced. “I told her not to sneak into my room. I told her she didn’t need to worry about me anymore, that I was sorry for making her think I was her responsibility.”

“Raven, no. You weren’t… she loved you. We all loved you, and we couldn’t stand to see anyone hurting you. Especially after what happened to your mom.” Jack hadn’t found him that day, lying in the snow. She hadn’t seen him clinging to his mother, refusing to let her go. But she’d seen him grow hollow cheeked and pale after Evelyn had moved into his house, incapable of keeping his eyes open during the day and terrified of closing them at night. “We thought you were going to die.”

“I let you think that. I gave up, because a part of me wanted to believe my mom was calling to me at night, asking me to join her. If she was here, that meant she wasn’t gone. And I know it’s messed up. I know I put you through hell, both of you, thinking you were going to lose me, but…” He bit his lip, looking down at the black-carpeted floor. “I wanted to see her again so badly. I wanted to tell her that I loved her. And that I was sorry.”

“Sorry for what?”

“The day my mom died, I was supposed to meet her at the pharmacy after violin practice. Five o’clock on the dot. But I took the long way around, because it was snowing for the first time all year, and I wanted to walk through the gardens in the center of town. If I’d gotten to the pharmacy when I was supposed to, I would’ve been there when that man showed up.” Raven looked at Jack. “I would’ve been able to get the gun away from him.”

“Or you would’ve been lying lifeless in the snow, just like she was. Raven.” Jack took his face in her hands. “What happened to your mom wasn’t your fault. It’s the fault of that masked man.”