The Secrets We Keep

The Fortieth Chapter

Hayden

At least one mystery was easy enough to solve: It was my brother who Grace was referring to in the girl's bathroom. I press my forehead against the window of the backseat of Christopher's car. He sits next to me and every once in a while, I catch him staring at me. 

This was definitely not on my bingo card. I'd never thought I'd even be able to stand the guy long enough to be in a room with him and here I am, willingly going over to his house. 

The next time I catch him glancing at me, I push my head up and ask, "What?"

His driver looks back at us in the rearview mirror but Christopher says, "You're so silent and I'm wondering what you're thinking right now."

"I'm thinking..." I start as I watch the trees and buildings blur past us. "Why is it so hard for people to do the right thing?"

"How so?"

I shrug as I look at him over my shoulder. "Why couldn't you and Nathan just study and not have to cheat? Why couldn't you have at least just written the test with the knowledge you had instead of resorting to something wrong? Was there a voice in your head? One that whispered to you to do that because I've been alive almost as long as you and sure, I've flunked tests, but I've never once resorted to cheating."

Christopher's driver looks up again, unabashedly listening to us and when I catch his eye in the mirror, he raises his eyebrows. 

"But you do have that voice in your head," Christopher muses, oblivious to the silent exchange between me and the man in the front seat. 

"Excuse me?" I say, offended. I don't have a voice that encourages me to do bad things. I've never once cheated. I've never stolen or hurt someone. I've never killed someone. 

And then I wonder, did Amelia's killer have that twisted voice in their head? One that told them to kill her?

"When you went after Johnson? When you kept the diary to yourself, are you telling me that you weren't aware that those things were wrong? But you did them anyway," Christopher says. 

"That's different," I huff. 

"It's not," he says and smirks. "And the reason why you're mad right now is because you know I'm right."

I roll my eyes and look back out the window. "What do you need me to do once we get to the house?" I ask to change the subject. 

Christopher looks once at his driver before lowering his voice. "You're the decoy. I need you to distract my father while I look for something." 

Decoy? "Ok, what's my cover story? And what are you looking for?"

"You're here to tutor me. When he comes in, I need you to draw him into a conversation. He's an asshole and rude, but if you ask him about himself, he'll talk to you."

I smirk. "Like father, like son?"

"That's the meanest thing you've ever said to me." There's a bite to his words that tells me he means that. "And as for what I'm looking for, it's a file. I don't know what it is yet only that Amelia looked at it and wrote about it in her diary."

I nod as we pull into a gated property. There's more I want to ask about this story, like what Amelia wrote exactly, but my mouth dries up as we get closer to the house. 

We get out as the driver pulls to a stop and I follow Christopher up a set of stone steps. There are leaves scattered over the stone and I crunch noisily over them until we get to the front door. Christopher holds the door open for me and as I look around the foyer and admire the chandelier, I can't help but wonder if Nathan's house looks like this.