She walks into the hallway, opens the door, and leaves without looking back.

“See you,” she calls. I don’t reply because I’m trying to figure out what just happened.

“She’s a nice girl,” Mum says, even if it sounds like she’s trying to convince herself.

“She’s weird,” Nia replies, brushing past us and going up to her room.

I follow her, because I have to know. Something doesn’t add up, and my stepsister is the only one who can help.

“Are you sure you don’t know her?”

Nia gives me the death stare until I step back, moving from her bedroom to the landing. “Why would I know her?”

“Because she was at your school. Her name’s Amy. She went to the same parties.”

Nia shakes her head. “A lot of people go to those parties.”

I don’t push it. Either Nia’s lying, which doesn’t make sense, or she genuinely doesn’t know her.

There are kids at my school who slip under the radar. I’m probably one of them. But, surely, people would recognize my face even if they forgot my name.

Amy looked genuinely shocked when Nia turned up. We get that, sometimes, when we tell people we’re sort-of related, and you can see the cogs turning as they figure out the hows and the whys. It’s the same when Mum says her surname is Nkansa and strangers can’t hide their surprise.

But Amy wasn’t surprised. She was terrified.

39

“She came to my house,” I say. “And she carries around kids’ clothes and is writing about me in her journal…saying I can’t possibly know the truth.”

Zak rubs his mouth and says, “Dude. You know I love you, but I think you’re self-sabotaging.”

“What are you talking about?”

“I’ve been doing some research, and it’s a thing. I think you like this girl…a lot. But you’re trying to rescue her when you should be asking her out.”

“Did you not hear what I said?”

“Yes. That’s the problem. When you were dancing with Amy, I’ve never seen you that happy. So what if she came over? Maybe she likes you.”

“And everything else?”

“It’s always a mistake reading someone’s diary, Tom. You can easily get the wrong idea.”

“And the kids’ clothes?”

Zak shakes his head. “I don’t know. Maybe they’re her brother’s or her cousin’s. Why are you so desperate to solve a mystery that might not even exist?”

“Because no one helped my mum. The clues were there, but no one saw them.”

I think of Martin pointing the gun at her and imagine what might have been. It’s a thought I have to scrunch my eyes and squeeze my fists to crush before it swallows me.

“I know what you’ve been through,” Zak says. “So why not try being happy?”