“If he had told Kelsey more about his research earlier, what he’d found out about her, then maybe I could have helped her. Maybe I could have made it so she didn’t have to numb herself with oxy and a whole bunch of other shit, so much that she’d end up OD’ing.” But Riel does not believe my dad is to blame, not deep down. I’m not sure if it’s deliberate that she stops blocking me. But I can read her clearly for a moment. And in her center is only grief, and guilt. “And so, yeah, when Quentin came looking for Kelsey and told me what your dad was hiding, I jumped at the chance to help shred your dad’s data. Which, by the way, is all I thought I was doing: making it so he couldn’t cash in.”

But Riel did lie; that isn’t lost on me. Quentin didn’t trick her by lying. She offered to help to get back at him.

“And meanwhile you helped get Cassie killed,” Jasper says.

“That sucks what happened to your friend,” Riel says. “But if your dad had come clean from the start, none of this would have happened.”

“He was trying to protect us,” I say, though it may be more true that he was trying to protect me.

“Well, he did an awesome job,” she says, her voice thick with something worse than contempt. Something that she wants me to feel.

“Somebody has him now anyway,” I say. And then realize that’s the best-case scenario. “Or something happened to him. Maybe they even killed him. So that should make you happy.”

Riel doesn’t even flinch. Instead, she shrugs.

“It’s amazing what they think they can keep secret.” She sounds insulted. “Or how far they’ll go to try.”

“So who was the girl I met?” I ask. “And how did she have your book?”

“I have no idea,” Riel says, but then something occurs to her. “Wait, what did she look like?”

“Long, curly dark hair,” I say. “Oh, and she has an infinity symbol tattooed on the inside of her wrist.”

Riel looks in Leo’s direction, then shakes her head again. “I should have known it was her.”

“Who?” I ask.

“There were three of you, right?” Riel goes on. “Three original Outliers from your dad’s test. Or that’s what he told me when he called to warn Kelsey about Quentin, when it was way too late anyway.” I am glad that my dad at least called. “That girl with the tattoo is the third Outlier. And I can promise you if she was in that hospital it’s because she wanted to be.”