Whitethorn Academy

Chapter Twenty-Six

Surprise flashed across my face as I turned to follow Brynn's line of sight. But she wasn't looking into the crowd of people that surrounded us. No, she was staring down at the yearbook in front of Naomi.

There was no way my mother was in this yearbook, right?

I followed her line of sight slowly, sure she had made a mistake.

Brynn was right.

Glancing down at the page, my mother's face, though years younger, stared back at me. She was smiling, unburdened by life and not yet chained by her monster of a husband. It was hard to remember a time when she'd seemed that lighthearted.

Her brown eyes sparkled with life and happiness, so unlike how I'd last seen her.

Natalie Thompson, Gifted Program. I blinked once, reading the name again. Gifted?

I felt my heart skip a beat in my chest for more reasons than one. Not only had my mother attended Whitethorn Academy when she was my age, but she'd been a member of the Gifted program. But she'd never mentioned it to me.

Until that day at the police station, I'd never heard of Whitethorn. Why hadn't she mentioned attending a private school? Or that she was Gifted?

She'd never told me stories about her youth or her upbringing. Everything about her was a mystery to me. How could I know so little about my mother?

My eyes drifted back to her photo, before scanning the names and photos of the rest of the students in her class. Naomi's mother was there, looking very much like a carbon copy of Naomi. Though I supposed it would be the other way around.

The last person in my mother's class was Inara Winters, also in the Gifted program. The headmistress's face looked nearly the same, though there were more worry lines etched into her face now than there were in her teens.

This was how my mother knew about Whitethorn and why she'd reached out to Inara to start the process of sending me here. My mother and Inara had been classmates, once upon a time. Maybe even friends.

Was Inara reporting back to my mother? The thought sent a shiver down my spine. Is that the reason my mother needed to speak with her so desperately? Or the reason Inara had been so interested in my mother's attendance of Parent's Day?

So many questions buzzed through my mind, like a horde of wasps stinging repeatedly. And I didn't have an answer to a single one. Anxiety and uncertainty churned in my stomach, roiling what little food I had eaten into a dense ball.

"Selene, are you okay?" Naomi asked me. Concern pinched her face, her green eyes full of worry.

"Yeah, yeah, I'm fine," I lied, though it nearly caught in my throat. "My mother never told me she was a student here. She never told me a lot of things, I guess."

Brynn raised an eyebrow, but said nothing. Part of me wondered what Naomi had told her mother about my relationship with my own, despite her telling me otherwise.

"I think I'm gonna see if I can find my mom," I said, trying to seem calm. "She's been gone for a while."

Naomi gave me a concerned look. "Do you want us to go with you?"

I gave her a smile that I hoped was sincere. "No, it's okay. You and your mom should spend some quality time together without me being a third wheel."

The dining hall had thinned out a bit, making it easier to maneuver my way through the crowd. Mari and her mother were gone, which meant so was Alek. I briefly wondered if he'd reunited with his own mother.

I didn't see my mother at the entrance of the main hall, which held a few clusters of parents and students. Inara's office was on the third floor of this building, so I headed up the stairs, my stomach churning with anxiety.