I’m banking on no one noticing the chairs, or everyone thinking someone else moved them. It’s a risk, but they won’t know it’s us, and nothing is missing.

Back on my street, I turn to Zak and say, “Thank you. I owe you one.”

“You’re not inviting me in?”

He smirks, and I pat him on the back. “Maybe next time.”

A curtain moves next door, and I see Mrs. Hawkins disappear. But I don’t have time to worry about that.

I turn my key as quietly as I can, close the door with the slightest click and avoid all the creaks in the hallway.

“Where’ve you been?” Aaron is standing at the top of the stairs with his hands on his hips. The noise in the dining room doesn’t stop. There’s even some laughter.

“Come here,” I whisper.

My stepbrother plods down the stairs, not caring who hears, and, when Mum shouts, “Did you find him?” I hold a finger to my lips.

“He did,” I reply.

“Hurry up,” she says. “You’re missing all the fun.”

I crouch down next to Aaron and say, “I was in the bathroom, okay? I know you saw me coming in from outside, but that’s a secret. Are we cool?”

I hold my fist out, and he bumps it. “Yep.”

Aaron’s a good kid. His sister’s animosity toward me hasn’t rubbed off on him yet, and I hope it never will.

“Where were you, though?” he asks, and I squeeze his shoulder.

“I’ll tell you. I promise. But not yet, okay?”

He nods, then walks into the dining room and shouts, “Tom was in the bathroom a long time!”

When you’re six, there’s no such thing as subtle.

Everyone laughs, even Chris, and I wonder what’s changed since I left.

I sit down next to Amy and try to look as calm as possible. She’s smiling, but her eyes look strange.

“What’s so funny?” I ask.

Jay says, “I was telling everyone about your theory. Remember when we first moved in, you thought Chris and Jane were locking the kids in their bedrooms.”

A freezing chill shoots through me, and I take a bite of my cheesecake to buy a few seconds. I glance up and that’s when I see the difference. They are all laughing, but only Jay means it.

Mum is shrinking into herself, desperate for him to stop. Chris looks angry, his lips switching from a smile to a scowl and back again. Jane has the same look in her eyes as the day she came over for tea, like she’s daring me to do something. Nia seems embarrassed, and Amy…

The note we found said she’s sorry, but for what? “Whatever gave you that idea?” Jane says, and there it is—the dare.