But do I actually think he is? Do I feel that right now? The truth is: I have absolutely no idea.

Outlier Rule #6: When your own heart is breaking, you can’t read anything anymore. Least of all yourself.

“I want to go home,” I say, and not even to Rachel.

“That’s why I came here, Wylie. To help you,” she goes on, talking to me like I am some messed-up kid she is swooping in to save. Like she is the good guy.

“Fuck you.” I glare at her.

“Fuck me?” Rachel asks, startled—and hurt, I can feel that, too. But it just makes me want to see her bleed.

“Yeah, fuck you,” I say. My anger has lit my mouth on fire. “For trying to pretend that you are some kind of hero. You are a liar. You have been lying to my family this entire time.”

“What?” Rachel blinks at me. So wounded now. Most of all I don’t like how convincing it is.

“How did you get this?” I ask, lifting my mom’s ring on the chain around my neck. “And what about her photographs? They were recent.”

Rachel stares at the ring for a minute and then blinks some more as tears rush into her eyes. She hangs her head, crosses her arms. Guilt, so much of it. It isn’t until that moment that I realize how badly I was hoping there would be some simple explanation.

But Rachel does not offer one. She does not offer anything.

“You need to give that ring to me, Wylie,” she says instead. And she is desperate. “I can’t explain why right now. And I get that you think I lied to you—I did lie to you. But not for the reasons you think. It’s not safe for you to have that ring.”

“Safe for who? You?” Once again, I am missing the most important thing. I can feel it, just out of reach. “Did you help them kill her?”

“You can’t be serious, Wylie?” Rachel shouts right back. “Listen, I understand that finding the ring must have been confusing and upsetting, and I know that you need me to explain, but—” She motions to the hospital. “This? I didn’t have anything to do with this. I’m here because the police contacted me and told me they were looking for you. That they knew we had been in contact. They said they were going to go out looking for you if you didn’t come in for questioning, and I told them that would be unnecessary because I thought you would be coming here sooner or later. If they’d wait that I could meet you here and arrange for—”

“You told them I’d be coming here!”