An Honest Lie(54)

“It’s not much but it’s real,” her mother used to say. Now it was the only real, physical thing she had left of Lorraine. When she put it on for the first time, the metal had warmed instantly to her skin, but when she reached up to touch it, the gold had been cool beneath her fingertips.

“You’re getting a roommate,” Ama told her the morning after she’d seen her mother’s body in the freezer.

“You mean a cellmate,” she said. These days, Ama seemed to love delivering news she knew wouldn’t be received well. Ama ignored her and prattled on about how it wasn’t good to be alone, that people were created to need each other. Summer barely heard her as she stared at the still-full lunch tray they’d brought to the room. There was a bowl of something that looked like gravy with three biscuits beside it. She picked up the iced tea and drank it slowly so she wouldn’t have to talk.

“But first, Sara would like to visit with you and express her sorrow at your mother’s passing. She is outside.” Sara’s parents had complete faith in her loyalty to them and Taured. If she was asking to see Summer, it could only mean that their precious daughter wanted to help. But Summer knew what they didn’t: that the girl behind the stoic facade was as angry inside as she herself was. She’d decided to forgive Sara, at least for the moment; she wanted to hear what the girl had to say.

She sat up straighter, nodded.

Ama left and a moment later Sara slipped in, closing the door softly behind her. With her came the smell of laundry detergent, underscored by sweat. Her nose was red, like she’d been crying. Summer studied her friend, glad to see her, despite her earlier anger. Sara was tall and ashamed of it—she rounded her shoulders when she walked and ducked her head to make herself look smaller. When she did look you in the face, she was pretty, or at least Summer thought so.

“I’m sorry.” Sara’s voice broke. She shook her head and tried again. “I’m sorry. I didn’t know.” She stayed where she was, head bowed, her guilt so painful to look at as Summer stood up and went to her. They met in the middle, clinging to each other as they cried.

Since the day Sara had invited her to eat with her parents, they’d been friends, co-conspirators and sisters. They didn’t give much away publicly about their friendship. Sara called it keeping things professional. In front of everyone in the compound, they barely acknowledged each other, but alone in the bathroom or dorms, they’d laugh and do their best impressions of the adults. Sometimes they snuck to the kitchens after midnight when they knew everyone would be asleep and stole the baked goods set aside for breakfast. They’d end their feast in the walk-in refrigerator, drinking milk that had come from one of the compound’s cows. They’d once gone into the freezer to see how long they could make it before they got too cold. Seven minutes, she remembered.

“I have to tell you something,” Sara said, pulling away. She wouldn’t look at Summer as she sat on the edge of Lorraine’s bed and traced the roses on the bedspread with her finger, her eyes wide. She looked nervous, scared. It was unlike her.

“I heard my dad talking to him.”

Tom, as the doctor and the first to move his family into the compound, was one of the most respected men in the community other than Taured himself. It wasn’t unusual for them to have private talks. Summer had seen them walking the parameter of the compound together many times in deep conversation, the same at dinners.

Summer frowned. Whatever her friend had to say was going to be awful, she already knew it. She didn’t have words, so she wrapped her arms around her body and sank next to Sara on the bed.

“They’ve reported your mom’s death to the police and they’re coming to get her body. They had to report it. Taured is paying someone inside the Friendship police to tell him stuff, and your grandparents called the cops after you two never showed up.”

Summer reached for Sara’s hands, grasping them between her own. “Taured took me to see her body. He showed me...she had these marks between her toes that he said were track marks and that she was on drugs. He’s going to tell the police she was an addict and she overdosed. But I know she’d never do that. Drugs killed my dad and she hated them. Taured did it to her and that’s why she died.”

Sara squeezed her hands hard so that Summer looked up in surprise. “He plans to keep you here, that’s what I heard him say to my dad.”

“Taured,” Summer whispered. It wasn’t a question. It wasn’t even a surprise, but somehow, saying it out loud made her feel woozy and light-headed. Taured thought everything belonged to him, including her. Sara said nothing for several seconds, watching Summer’s face.

“They can’t keep me here. If my mom is...gone, they’ll send me to her parents, right?”

“They’re going to say you ran away a few weeks ago and that’s what made your mom overdose on drugs. They’re pretending you’re not here, Summer. They’re going to keep you locked up.”

Her heart was her whole body, thudding until she was shaking so much Sara got up and threw a blanket around her shoulders.

“Listen, I’ve been thinking about it...”

Sara’s face, which was naturally serious, looked almost pinched in its earnestness.

“There’s more. Your mom had a life insurance policy. She got it after your dad died. You’re the beneficiary. Taured wants it.” Sara’s nostrils were flaring as she looked Summer in the eye, her own eyes brimming with tears.