Aidan was hanging back behind his dad and Penny, head down and his dirty cleats kicking at the ground. The game wasn’t over yet—I could still hear it going on and the crowd cheering from the sidelines—and Aidan was already spattered in dirt and grass stains. Which meant his dad had pulled him out of the match, and I could only imagine how humiliating that must have been for Aidan.

I caught the end of the sentence Mr. McMillan was yelling in Luca’s face, the word kidnapping cracking in the air like a gun going off.

“Whoa, whoa, whoa!” Penny’s hands went up, trying to calm Mr. McMillan down, and at the same time Aidan’s head snapped up. “Dad, no!” he said.

I felt a tug on my arm and was yanked to the side by Jed, who was standing with a nervous-looking Sam. I glanced behind us and saw that a small crowd of soccer fans had started turning their heads toward us, but that Khoa and Keira’s dad were telling them to enjoy the match, nothing to see here.

But that wasn’t the case.

“You carted my son all the way out here without me knowing!” He was practically spitting at Luca, his words easily heard above the crowd. “What kind of cop are you that you’d take my kid off without telling us?”

Penny stepped between the two of them, and Luca took a step back and seemed to shake himself.

“Now, hold on. Your son came into our station and when we asked him, he indicated that you were aware of where he’d be today and had given your permission,” Penny said in her calm and steady voice—and then she looked behind Mr. McMillan to Aidan, who nodded once. “As far as I can tell, Luca—I mean, Senior Constable Ricci—was giving his daughter’s friend a lift to a game he was supposed to be playing in. . . .”

It was then that Luca looked over and caught sight of me—his eyes seemed to narrow and then he shook his head again before turning away.

I felt my heart crawl even lower, right down to my feet.

“It’s true, Dad,” Aidan said. “I forged the permission slip, and I thought I’d be back before you got home from work, I didn’t think—”

“No, you didn’t think!” Mr. McMillan said, and Aidan winced at the words.

“Bill, I promise you—we had no idea,” Luca tried, but he was waved away.

“We’re leaving,” Mr. McMillan said. “Now!” He turned around but Aidan held his ground.

“I want to finish the game,” Aidan said, his head down and voice so low that we could hardly hear him.

Mr. McMillan reached for Aidan’s upper arm, but Aidan shrugged him off.