Page 49 of Wicked Titan

It’s true. He was a student at Golden Olympus Academy.

“You must really be having a bad day.”

I jump as I look up to see Victoria taking a seat next to me, giving the librarian a disgusted glare before grabbing a yearbook from the stack.

“What’s all this?” Victoria flips through the stiff pages.

Returning my attention back to the picture of my dad, I don’t feel like I can trust anyone, but I still tell Victoria the truth. “My dad went to school here.”

“Really?”

“Yep.” I flip through the pages, looking for Candace, and sure enough there’s a younger version of her too.

The tuition at this school is more than the average person makes in a year. From the little bit I know of both sets of grandparents, neither had the means to afford this place. How and why were they here?

Searching out Nathan, he isn’t hard to recognize because he doesn’t look all that different.

Continuing through the names, I search to see if anyone else seems familiar. Only a Bass and a Hastings catch my attention for obvious reasons.

A hard cough causes Victoria and I to raise our heads, looking at the librarian. She slaps her chest before waving at us, signaling she is fine, and takes a swig of water.

Victoria looks over to me as we both grin. Apparently, the crickets aren’t going down without a fight.

I flip through endless pages of photographs until I stop on a page featuring prom pictures. Unsure what to make of the largest photo on the page, I study the smiling couple staring back at me—Candace and Nathan.

The pair look like the picture-perfect high school couple as they embrace, smiling for the camera. Candace exudes the happiest smile I’ve ever seen on her.

Even as a child, I never recall her being that happy. The few memories I can recall include her crying or fighting with my dad, which is one of the reasons I was always angry with myself. Why did it bother me so much that she’d left us when she’d never seemed happy with us?

I study a few other photos, spotting my dad on the other side of the page with a girl I don’t recognize. All the snapshots are candid. Just a glimpse into prom night, so there aren’t any names anywhere to identify the smiling faces. Studying the girl’s features for a moment, I flip back to the student photo section and search but can’t seem to find her.

They might not have told me what high school they attended, but I know my dad said that he dated my mom all throughout high school, so why are they not at prom together?

The bell signals for the end of lunch period, but there’s more information encompassed in the pages.

There’s something that I’m missing, and it’s right in front of me.

Closing the yearbook, I slide it under my science textbook as I grab the stack and cram them in my bag. I’m not leaving it here because I know there’s something there. It’s right in front of my face, obvious and important. Now I just need to figure out what it is.

41

The prom picture of Nathan and Candace won’t leave me alone, but I still can’t figure out what I’m overlooking in that yearbook. I stopped at Java Knox, spending way more time than I care to admit studying each and every photo. There’s not a name or face I wouldn’t recognize at this point but that’s still not helping me get anywhere.

My next brilliant move—buying a cup of coffee to drop off at Nathan’s office.

I’m trying really hard to keep my hand steady, but it’s not going all that great as more coffee splashes out of the small hole on the coffee lid. He knew I was snooping the last time so I’m already on his radar, but I couldn’t just do nothing.

Stepping inside the massive lobby, I approach the desk where the receptionist holds her hand up to me as she continues speaking into the phone.

Finally, she wraps up the phone call, then looks up to me.

“Can I help you?”

“I’m here to see Nathan.”

She takes a quick assessment of me before asking, “Do you have an appointment?”

“No. I’m just dropping this off for him.” I gesture to the coffee.