my neck. It was my locket. A cheap, silver-plated h

ld, impossible moment, I tho

d sneered just last month at the dinner table. "It ma

my hand, the metal

t," I had

that matter? When are you going to start thi

cket between her gloved fingers. I p

urrowed. Then her expression went blank

ht have the kille

r held out. My heart, the one that no longer beat, s

y Ochoa. He strode onto the scene, his jaw tight, his eyes scanning the swarm of police activity

er, his face grim. "What a

ce low. "No ID. Face is... wel

ing I need right now. The press is going to have a fi

yled hair. He was already thinking abo

standing over my corpse, comp

ed, his voice laced with irritation, "Kelsie's

her phone a dozen times. Goes straight to voicemail. Charlotte

'happens' with Kelsie. She's just being dramatic. Probably shacked up with some loser

t me, their missing daughter, while my body lay decomposing at their

e grid." I wasn'

righ

en for t

Adler Hendrix, a close family friend.

their stressed faces to the sheet now covering my

"Just another tragedy. Some poor family is

ance of sympathy for the cam

s everything alright at home?" He knew about our family's tensions.

She's run off. Again. Right before Javon's championship gam

d to howl until the force o

e. Not really. It wa

I was lost as a child. When they found me years later, that space was already occupied. I came bac

red into the wind, but the word

this

r ag