Touch of Fear ▸ House of Anubis [2]

chapter eighty-three. house of pretenders

☾ ☽

            "Look, let's get this into perspective," Fabian tells us. We're still talking about how Vera's planning on hypnotizing us somehow to get us to play the game in the tunnels. "Trudy only fell for the magic box stuff because she wanted to believe. We don't."

            The door suddenly slams open and Joy runs into the room in a panic. Alfie shuts the door back as she tells us, freaked out about something, "Trudy's memory doctor. He's not a doctor at all. I just saw him talking to Jasper. And then he took his disguise off. And it's Rufus."

            Rufus! No wonder he seemed so familiar, and no wonder he was looking at me like that! He was right there in front of us and we had no idea at all. But realizing that he was less than a foot away from me has me remembering that thing Anubis told me—which I somehow stupidly forgot about! "Oh, my God, I totally forgot to tell you guys," I say, wincing at my stupidity. How did I forget about this?!

            "Tell us what?" Fabian questions.

            "When we were trapped in the barn," I explain, gesturing wildly to my head so they get it while Joy looks confused, "told me that Lily mentioned Rufus, said they were family—except she didn't call him her adoptive brother. She called him her cousin."

            Alfie shakes his head. "Hang on, Lily and Rufus were cousins?"

            "Her dad's sister was Rufus' mum."

            "You're related to Rufus?" Amber asks, gaping at me.

            "Very distantly apparently. Obviously, I don't claim it."

            Fabian looks as confused as Joy. "Wait," he says, "so after Lily's parents went to prison, the Frobisher-Smythes adopted her. Then when they died, Rufus' parents, otherwise known as Lily's aunt and uncle, adopted both her and Sarah. Why didn't we know that Rufus and Lily were cousins before?"

            I shrug. "I don't know. Rufus never said anything last year and every time I've seen Lily in her ghostly ways she's never mentioned it or him at all. And there was nothing in either box of Sarah or Lily's that suggested that at all, nor in Lily's diary. She's always called him her friend in that."

            Patricia crosses her arms. "Uh, this is pretty big news, Ashley. How exactly did you just forget to tell us?"

            "Well, I'm sorry if other things that happened that day sort of overshadowed it," I retort before listing some of the other things that happened to have also happened the same day I found this out. "Spray-painted replica, getting locked in the barn, rescuing Trudy, dollhouse destroyed—"

            "Jerome," Amber states thoughtfully.

            "—'s dad's gem," I finish quickly, glaring at her. "It completely slipped my mind and Rufus seemed to have been on the down-low before tonight."