Page 89 of Wicked Games

“What about his lawyer?”

My eyes widen. “Oh fuck.”

How the hell could I have forgotten?

“What?” She drops her phone and stares at me. “Margo?”

“You remember when we went to the city? Me and Caleb?”

“Yeah…”

My legs give out. My knees hit my rug, and Riley reaches out. Her hand on my shoulder steadies me. I grip her wrist and take a breath.

“We ran into a man—he was petrified to see Caleb… and then me. Caleb said he was my dad’s lawyer. I can’t believe I forgot.”

“What the fuck,” she whispers. “You’re in the middle of a freaking conspiracy here. This lawyer recognized both of you?”

“Yeah.”

“Margo.” She eyes me. “You were both ten—and had maybe turned eleven—for the duration of the trial. And he immediately recognized Caleb?”

Shit, when she says it like that…

“What was his name?”

“Tobias. I don’t know his last name.” I cover my face. “What is goingon?”

“I could probably find from the media coverage on your dad’s trial…. Or not.” She flashes me her screen, and what she had typed into the search bar:Keith Wolfe trial.

No search results.

“How is that possible?”

“I’ve heard that results can be removed from search engines. That would take a lot of time… or deep pockets. Maybe your social worker would know? Or Caleb?”

Ha. Caleb has turned over a new leaf in terms of opening up, but I’m still not one hundred percent sure he wouldn’t lie. He lies so easily. Telling my foster parents that his injuries came from a car crash, for one.

“There’s got to be another way. I’ll get on one of the school computers at lunch and see if I can dig deeper.” I slide on my shoes. “In the meantime, we just need to act normal.”

“Right. Normal.”

“Oh, and my mom is apparently in town.”

Her jaw drops.

“She doesn’t want to see me,” I add.

“What?”

One thing about being a foster amidst ‘normal’ kids—they take for granted having parents. Maybe that isn’t quite true—Eli’s parents are always traveling, Riley’s seems to have an interesting and unusual dynamic, and Caleb’s family is insane. But a mom who rejects you outright? Goes so far as to give up parental rights?

It leaves a scar.

“She hates me,” I tell her. “So… she’s here for some other reason. Caleb told me last night, but he wouldn’t elaborate. Or he didn’t know.”

“Wow.” Riley wisely doesn’t say anything else about it until we’re in her car, armed with buttered toast from Robert. “I just can’t imagine.”

“Your parents are nice.” I take a bite of toast. “It’s easy for the alternative to be hard to swallow.”

---