“It doesn’t add up. She’s hiding something.”

I’m changing my mind so often that it’s hurting my head. Amy opened up to me, but I can’t shake the feeling that she was honest about the wrong thing. I need to know for certain if the story about her dad is true. Nia might tell me if I catch her on a good day, except those are few and far between.

Luckily for me, Aaron is visiting soon. He stays with us once a week, Jay and Nia spending Saturday with him and all of us playing happy families for one night.

He’s only six, but he can defrost his sister with a single smile. She loves Aaron so much that I wonder why she chose to live with her dad and his second attempt at a happy ending.

I used to think the love she has for her brother should negate whatever anger she feels for her mum. But I’ve seen the way Nia looks at her when she drops Aaron off. She hates her for cheating on Jay. She despises her for forcing her to make a decision no kid should have to make. Which parent do you want to live with: the one who has your favorite person in the world or the one who did nothing wrong?

Nia chose her dad when it was just the two of them. Now she has a second brother she can’t stand and a stepmother who tiptoes round her.

But Aaron could be my secret weapon, because Nia forgets to hate me when he’s around. She can help me figure out what’s going on with Amy. She’s the insider I need to figure out exactly what happened at St. Gregory’s.

34

Nia wraps Aaron in a hug he pretends he doesn’t want until his giggles give him away.

She laughs so loudly and so genuinely that it catches me by surprise. And then I smile, too, because I enjoy seeing her like this.

We’re all happier when Aaron comes over. The cloud that hovers over Nia all week vanishes the moment he arrives. She forgets to be sarcastic. She doesn’t roll her eyes or mumble insults under her breath. She loves being a big sister, just not to me.

I called her that once, and she huffed and said, “I’m literally ten months older than you.”

I felt stupid for saying it. And I realized pretty quickly that she didn’t want to be my anything.

But there are other moments too. Like the time her friends were over and Femi called me weird when he thought I wasn’t listening. Esther laughed, and I waited for Nia to agree, but she didn’t. Instead, she said, “He’s all right.”

“Hi, Tom,” Aaron says.