I tuck the photo inside the green notebook and slip them both back into my backpack. There are so many questions still unanswered, but the world suddenly seems a little more solid. Because for weeks I’ve been stumbling from random memory to memory, without anything concrete to connect them. And now I at least know what I’m looking for.

Notebook #1.

ACT II: SCENE 10

The next morning we’re sitting at our usual table in the middle of the cafeteria when I catch sight of Brody Culver. I’ve only seen him a few times since I’ve been at Whisper Cove, and I wasn’t prepared to see him this morning.

He gives us all a big wave and a too-friendly smile, and I start to panic. But he doesn’t come over to chat. He just grabs some coffee and a muffin and heads back to his office. And I’m relieved. I’m not ready to be face-to-face with him again. Not until I figure some things out.

As relieved as I feel, though, Val looks even more relieved. And I wonder what’s up with that, but she doesn’t say anything about it, so I turn my thoughts back to notebook #1.

We’re dumping our trays when Val leans in close to whisper in my ear. “He touched me the other day. It creeped me out.”

“Who?” I’m confused.

“Brody Culver,” she says. And she makes a face. “I was working in the garden, and he came up behind me. Put his hands on my shoulders.” I remember the way his fingers lingered on my bare arm. When he touched me in his office. “He told me he thought I had star potential.”

“Seriously?”

She leans in even closer. Drops her voice a little lower. “One of the ladies who works in the kitchen told me he has a reputation for shit like that. With the actresses he works with.” Val looks over her shoulder, then narrows those cat eyes of hers. “She said he has a temper, too. That he can go from nice to nasty so fast it’ll make your head spin. So you watch yourself with him. Okay?”

“Yeah.” I nod. “Okay.” I knew that easygoing grin of his was fake.

“Girls gotta stick together,” Val says, and she nudges me with her shoulder. “Too many fucking bastards out there.”

“Yeah,” I say again.

I’m wondering now if that’s how things started between Brody and my mother. If he rubbed her shoulders and told her she had star potential. If he promised to help her start over. A new chance at a new life.