Page 59 of Wicked Promises

Riley grabs my arm and hauls me toward the door. Maybe she can see the family resemblance, or maybe she’s just freaked out about this woman’s sudden appearance.

Mom opens her mouth, but my shoulder hits the doorframe.

It knocks some sense into me.

Spinning around, I finally go with Riley. My feet move fast, almost outrunning my friend. We sprint to her car and fall into it.

“Go, go, go.” I stare at the entrance.

Mom bursts out just as Riley turns onto the street, and we fly past her.

Around the corner.

Shit.

“Who the hell was that?” Riley yells.

I laugh. I can’t help it.

Threefuckingyears, and I stumble upon her by accident. What kind of insane irony is that? Whoever is controlling my fate must think themselves a comedian.

“My mother,” I say through my giggles. But then the laughter falls away. “Caleb must’ve known she was there.”

When we’re far enough away, Riley pulls onto the shoulder of the road. It’s one of the back ways to get between Beacon and Rose Hill, and it’s deserted.

“That was your mom?” She cranks the heat again.

Now that I’m sitting still, my hands tremble. “I’m so sick of surprises.”

She sighs. “I thought we were going to find Unknown. You know? Like inPretty Little Liars.”

“I never saw that show.” I shake my head. “Were they threatened by a mysterious texter, too?”

She chuckles. “Yeah, they were.”

“Huh.”

She types on her phone. “I’m going to make a list. We’ve got to narrow this down.” She taps her chin. “Okay, so… Unknown texted you before you started school. They had to have your number somehow. Before anyone else got it.”

I sigh. “It was a new number, too. My social worker got it for me.”

“The social worker who lied about why your dad went to prison?”

Yikes. “That’s the one.”

“They also had to see Ian dragging you off at school,” Riley points out. More typing. “That was in the middle of the school day, and kind of a random day to be there. It would’ve had to be pure coincidence.”

I put my hand over my stomach, getting phantom pains just from thinking about what Ian did.

“Unknown said that was the only nice thing they would do for me.” I sigh. “Amelie and Savannah were involved in that one. Amelie said Sav sent it to her, and when she didn’t care, she sent it on to Caleb.”

“Confusing.” Riley frowns. “We kind of ruled them out, right? I mean… not the two of them together. That was a working theory at one point. And… there was the party. With the video.”

“Ugh.”

“What else?”

“They seemed to have insider knowledge. But… not inner circle stuff.”