From the Desk of Zoe Washington(49)

“Father.” Mom laughed. “You’re kidding, right?”

“Now, listen. You never gave him a chance to be a dad to Zoe.”

“As if you don’t know why!” Mom said, lifting her hands in the air. “I mean, seriously, Mom.”

I sat there watching them argue, not sure what else to do. At least Grandma hadn’t mentioned that I actually spoke on the phone with Marcus. Twice.

“I know what Marcus is in prison for,” Grandma said. “I never would’ve let him do anything to hurt Zoe. I read the letters he sent, and they were harmless.”

Mom took a deep breath. “Let me get this straight. You went behind my back and gave Marcus’s address in prison to Zoe?” she asked Grandma.

“He wrote to me first,” I jumped in, my voice small. “He sent me a letter on my birthday, and I wrote him back. Grandma didn’t find out until after I got his second letter.”

Mom’s eyes bulged as she faced me. “You found that letter?”

“Wait,” I said. “Did you know he was going to send one?”

“I hoped he wouldn’t,” Mom said. “When I didn’t see it in the mail, I thought he finally stopped. I can’t believe you didn’t tell me that you found it. And you lied to me about writing to him! After I told you I didn’t want you to.” She was yelling now.

I went over her words in my head again. She knew that Marcus was going to send me a letter? I couldn’t believe it.

“You’re the reason I never got any of Marcus’s other letters?” I asked.

“I told you, I don’t want you communicating with him.”

“What did you do with them?” I asked. “I want to see them.”

“They’re gone,” Mom said, matter of fact.

“What?” I screeched. “Those were my letters.”

“Watch your tone, Zoe,” Mom said.

I ignored her. “Did you read them? What did they say?” I asked.

Mom shook her head. “I didn’t read them.”

Anger flashed through me as I imagined a bunch of unopened letters from Marcus sitting in a landfill somewhere, covered in trash. Now I’d never get to read them, and it was all my mom’s fault. How could she be so selfish? How could she have lied to me this whole time?

I opened my mouth again, to demand more answers, but before I could say anything else, the doorbell rang.





Chapter Thirty-Two


Mom’s face twisted in annoyance as she went to open the door.

“Patricia. Hi,” she said. Trevor’s mom.

“Hi, Natalie,” Patricia said. “I brought Trevor over to apologize for his part in whatever happened today. Also, he wouldn’t tell me the whole story, so I hope Zoe will fill in the blanks.”

“Come on in,” Mom said, and then Patricia and Trevor walked into the living room. He looked at me with worry in his eyes before sitting down on the other side of the couch. I put on my best “I’m sorry” face, hoping he understood. I was the one who’d gotten us into this mess.

“I still don’t understand what happened either,” Mom said, glaring at Grandma before her gaze landed on me. “Zoe, I’m only going to ask you one time, and you better tell the truth. What were you two doing in a cab?”

“It was my fault,” I said. “I made Trevor go to Harvard Square with me.”

Mom’s face scrunched up even more. “Why?”

“Marcus is innocent!” The words burst out of my mouth, and then without meaning to, I started to cry again. “He’s not a murderer. He didn’t do it! There’s a woman who works at Harvard who says she remembers seeing him when the crime happened.” I didn’t know for sure yet if that was true—if Professor Thomas really saw Marcus during the crime. All I knew was that she recognized him, but everything inside of me hoped it was true—that he really was innocent.

Out of the corner of my eye, I could see Trevor staring at me, his face twisted in confusion.

I turned to him. “I tried to tell you in the car. Professor Thomas emailed me to say she remembers Marcus.”

My mother looked like she didn’t know how to begin to respond. “Zoe, I don’t know where you got this information, but Marcus is not innocent of murder. He’s in prison right now because he’s guilty.”

“No!” I got up and grabbed my phone from the armchair. I opened my mail app and the email from Professor Thomas. “Here, call her. Her name is Susan Thomas. Marcus’s lawyer never looked for her, but I did. I found her, and she remembers him. Call her and she’ll tell you what happened.”

Mom took the phone from me, and for a moment, I was filled with relief when I thought that she was going to call Professor Thomas back and learn the truth.

But that’s not what she did. My phone chimed as she turned it off. “Absolutely not. You are grounded until further notice. No phone and no computer.”

“But—”

“And you can forget about auditioning for that Food Network show.”

“What?” I asked, my eyes filling with fresh tears. “You can’t!”

“I can,” Mom said.

Patricia said, “C’mon, Trevor. I need to get ready for work. I’ll talk to you about your punishment later. I’m thinking no basketball for a while.”