“Evie,” Dad said. “What’s going on?”

I exhaled. “Did he…did Oren…he didn’t kill his parents, did he?”

Dad roared, “EVIE!”

Jared added an equally shocked, “WHAT?”

Sudden tears pricked at my eyes. “I’m sorry, I’m sorry! I just—”

Jared looked at my father and then back to me. “Of course he didn’t!” he said.

“Why would you even ask that?” Dad demanded.

I hurried to explain. “Because he told me he did.”

Both men stood there gaping at me.

Jared finally spoke first. “What do you mean, he told you? He’s speaking?”

“Just the one time…um…he was pretty upset and…” I cleared my throat again. “He said he…killed them.”

“That’s ridiculous,” Jared said. “It was an accident. Why would he say that?”

“I don’t know,” I said, suddenly worried I was about to get in trouble. “He just…blurted it out. Like, for no reason.”

Jared sighed and sat down on the bench by the door, dropping his head into his hands. He spoke as he rubbed at his face. “I just don’t know what to do. He lost his parents, and now he’s stuck with an uncle he barely knows who doesn’t have a clue what he’s doing. He’s uncommunicative. He’s having nightmares. He won’t go to counseling.” He muttered a few curse words and then said, “I’m making such a mess of all this. I don’t know how to be a parent. I don’t know how to be what he needs.”

“He has been doing art therapy,” I said.

Jared looked up at me. “What?”

“We’ve been doing crafts. I think it’s helping.” At least, I had thought it was helping. Now I wasn’t so sure.

“Oh.” Jared gave me a sad smile. “That’s…that’s great, Evie. Really. If it weren’t for you,”—he looked up at Dad—“all of you—I’m not sure what I’d do.”

He sighed and then continued, “I was at their house earlier, getting the mail from the neighbor and figuring out some bills. I’m going to need to sell it sooner or later so we can wrap up the estate. Anyway, I found a folder.” He paused and shook his head.

I glanced at Dad, but he gave me a look that said this was one of those times when listening was way more important than talking.

Jared took another breath and went on. “They were planning to take Oren to the Grand Canyon a couple of weeks from now. I was actually thinking of taking him—no one needs a holiday more than he does. But…instead I called the travel agent and canceled everything. I just can’t…”

“You have so much on your plate,” Dad said, laying a hand on Jared’s arm. “You can take him another time. He’ll understand.”

Jared gave him a grateful smile, but the feeling wasn’t in his eyes. “I don’t think he knew they were taking him.”

He looked so miserable and hopeless, it broke my heart. Actually, broke it more because it was already pretty busted over Oren. “I’ll go get him,” I offered. I felt like I should, since I’d been the one to push him into freaking out and running away.