“It’s okay,” I say. “It’s not what it looks like.”

I don’t realize how far I’ve moved until Amy walks out and stares at me. The boy is wearing the mustard-colored jacket I saw in her bag.

“What the fuck?” I say, and she looks at me with fear in her eyes.

That’s when we hear the woman screaming for the boy Amy’s trying to kidnap.

Part Two

47

“What are you doing?” I ask.

Amy lets go of the boy’s hand and says, “This isn’t what it looks like.”

“Isn’t it? Because it looks like you’re abducting a kid.”

Amy shivers. “I’m sorry.” Then she crouches next to the boy and whispers, “This is a silly game, isn’t it? Do you want to go back to your mummy, now?”

He nods, and she takes off the jacket and pushes him toward me. “Take him back.”

“Me? What if they think…”

“Just say you found him.”

The boy’s mother screams again, and people around us look toward the sound. It won’t be long before we seem suspicious, so I hold his arm and say, “Come on, mate. Let’s find your mum.”

When she sees him, she sprints toward us and sweeps him into a hug.

“He was…”

“Thank you,” the woman says. “Thank you so much.” She turns to her son. “Don’t you ever wander off again, do you hear me? You scared Mummy.”

A few people smile at me because they think I’m the hero. But I’m something else. I saw it happening, and I didn’t stop it. I gave him back, but I know the truth.

The boy is sobbing, and I feel guilty because he doesn’t deserve this, even if his mum is pulling him close and whispering, “It’s okay, darling. You’re safe now.”

Loads of people are staring, but Amy isn’t one of them.

When I go back to the bathrooms, she’s gone.

I followed her, hoping for answers. But now I have more questions than ever. She tried to steal a child. She was prepared for it, carrying spare clothes around for weeks.

All that time I thought Amy was being trapped by a monster in her home. Now I think Amy might be the monster.

48

Everything I thought I knew is bullshit.

I spent so long trying to figure out how to rescue Amy, but she wasn’t the victim. And then I believed we could actually be something. We kissed, and it was amazing, but now it feels like a horrible trick.

What happens when I see her at school…if she even comes back? Is that why she left St. Gregory’s? Did someone catch her doing something bad, and she ran just far enough to avoid seeing them every day?