“How did you get in?” I sounded calm, which was surprising, because I wasnotcalm. Every nerve in my bodytwitched.
My uncle tipped his head toward the window over the denim couch. Shards of glass glittered on the threadbare seatcushions.
I backed up. Smacked into awall.
Not awall.
Hands came around my biceps and pinned me in place. “Hi,Cuz.”
I twisted my neck and gaped up into a familiar set of hazel eyes, then stared back at Uncle Jeb and AuntLucy.
“We’ve come to take you home,” Lucy said, finally heaving herself out of thechair.
When I’d hoped for a new life, this wasn’t what I’d had inmind.
I shrugged my cousin Everest’s hands off and tried to lope around him, but his body filled the exit path. “Like hell I’m going backthere!”
“Why didn’t you call us when Maggie died?” My aunt wiped the corners of her eyes with a tissue. She hadn’t cared about Mom when she’d been alive, but now Lucy was suddenly heartbroken?The nerve ofher.
“WhywouldI tellyou?”
“Because we’re your family,” Jebsaid.
“You lost that title the day you forced us out ofBoulder.”
My uncle scratched a spot behind his ear. “Ness, there were reasons we urged your mother toleave.”
“Oh, I remember them:Ness is fragile. She shouldn’t run with boys. It’s dangerous.Am I misquoting you,Uncle?”
Jebflushed.
“But now you suddenly want me to come back? Why would I go with you?” My voice rang so loudly in the corridor that my neighbor stopped beating up his wife long enough to stick his head through the door. Probably to check for cops. He didn’t ask if I was okay. He wasn’t concerned with my well-being; he wasscum.
Just like my uncle andaunt.
“You have to come with us. You’re a minor,” Lucysaid.
“I’ll be eighteen inSeptember.”
Lucy balled the tissue in her dimpled hand. “Until then, we’re your legal guardians, so we call theshots.”
Disbelief raked over me. “How did you even find out aboutMom?”
“News travels,” Everestsaid.
I had no more ties in Boulder, which had me wondering if Mom’s death certificate was on the internet for all tosee.
“Your school principal called,” Jeb said. “You neither attended your graduation, nor picked up your diploma. He was trying to reach your mom, but her phone was disconnected. Since I was listed as next of kin, he phonedme.”
Anger and shock warped my sight. Anger that Mom had listed my uncle on my school file, and shock that it was my own error that had led these people tome.
“How long have you been living like”—Lucy wrinkled her nose—“this?”
Where I lived wasn’t a palace. I was aware of that, but having her state it with such distaste raised my hackles. Her gaze roved over our faded couch, over the chipped white veneer of the countertop, over the yellow water stain that had bloated and cracked a piece of theceiling.
“Move your arm, young man.” The familiar voice had me wheeling around. Evelyn held out a can of pepper spray to Everest’sface.
“Whoa, chill out, lady.” My cousin lowered the palm he’d planted on the wall to corralme.
