“Oh,” I say, my mind reeling with all the information. I don’t know Russian, but whatever he said sounded bad. Like he was really angry.

“I look forward to talking more another time,” Alexei says in a calmer voice. “Dasvidanya, moya dorogaya.”

“Dasvidanya,” I say, trying out the Russian word for goodbye.

“Ochen khorosho—very good,” Alexei says. “You are a natural.”

I give the phone back to Max, and he hangs it up.

Olivia claps her hands together. “Well, that was interesting.”

Max rubs the back of his neck and meets my gaze. “I’m sorry about your gram. That day at the mall?”

I nod. “She forgot where she parked.”

Olivia looks at Max and then at me. “Oh—is this what he helped you with?”

“It’s when I finally knew I had to do something. I’ve been researching how the brain works, and I think there’s something in Gram’s past that is triggering her memory loss. Something really traumatic. If I can find it and make her face it, she can heal and her memory will get better.”

Max frowns. “How do you know that will work?”

“I don’t,” I say. “But I have to try. She’s my gram, and I owe it to her. I owe her everything.”

“We’ll help you,” Olivia says, motioning to Max. “Won’t we?”

“For sure,” Max says. “I mean, we know she moved here from Russia and kept it secret. That could be because she’s a spy.” He puts his hand up to stop my protest. “I know that’s not your favorite theory, but we can’t rule it out. It would explain a lot. And maybe it’s the key. What if the memory is about one of her missions?”

Olivia holds up a finger as she counts down what we know. “She left Russia for mysterious reasons. There’s a file on her that’s redacted. And then there’s the Russian guy in the woods who called her a traitor.”

“I have a different theory,” I say. “We also know my gram’s mom is the one who insisted Gram lie, and that she married an American who worked at the American embassy in Russia. I think Gram’s mom fell in love and wanted to leave her husband. In those days you couldn’t do that without getting in big trouble. That’s why she had to sneak out and lie so the Russian government couldn’t find her.”

Olivia takes out her phone and types furiously. “You think the files are redacted to hide them from the Russian government? Do you think—” She looks up at me. “What was his name?”

“Mark,” I reply.

“Yeah, Mark.” Her thumbs fly as she adds in more information. “Do you think Mark had the power to do that?”