Page 35 of Close Your Eyes and Count to 10

Her brother, who was an even bigger worrier than Mom, somehow seemed unconcerned about this. He blew out a breath. “Everyone knows it’s some kind of scam.”

She shook her head. “Who knows that? There’s an actual police investigation. Harley Granger, that true crime guy, has picked up the case. There’s apodcast.”

She kept reading aloud,“‘Chloe had a history of depression and had survived two suicide attempts, one in high school after the death of her mother, one in college after a painful breakup. Her family reached out to Extreme and asked them not to accept her application, but Chloe was one of the chosen influencers for the event.’”

“See?” said Blake. “She was like messed up. Mom passed the psych evaluation.”

Violet kept reading,“‘In recent years, Chloe’s podcast and Photogram feed focused on helping people deal with mental-health issues, focusing on self-love, body positivity, and ACT therapy. She was open about her ongoing battle with depression and had earned over three hundred thousand followers. Her desire to participate in the Haunted Hide and Seek Challenge was about “facing your fears, putting yourself out there, and taking risks.”’”

That sounded a lot like Mom, who Violet knew hadn’t just gone for the money. Adele wanted to prove to herself that she could do it. That she could take charge and win. She’d said as much.

Violet kept reading, not sure if Blake was even listening.

“‘Chloe disappeared with the rest of the contestants at the start of the event. But she was never found, even after an exhaustive search of the property. Maverick Dillan claims to have no information about what could have happened to Chloe but declared her the official winner and donated her prize to NAMI, the National Alliance for Mental Illness.’”

“Okay,” said Blake. “But there are plenty of people that think this is just some kind of stunt. Listen to this…‘Her credit card was used to buy gas at a New Jersey gas station the day after she was declared missing. A woman who could have been Chloe—same height and build, but in a hoodie and sunglasses—was captured on security footage, but the car was not hers, and the plates were not visible to the camera. A series of ATM withdrawals totaling nearly five thousand dollars over the next week, all in the same five-mile radius around the hide and seek event site, indicate that she might have been preparing for flight. Again, the woman caught on the ATM camera sought to hide her face behind glasses and a hoodie. Family members and friends disagree on whether it was Chloe or not.’It’s a total stunt,” Blake concluded.

“Why would someone do that?” asked Violet.

Blake looked at her, and neither of them had to say anything to know that they were both thinking of their dad.

“Why do people do anything?” he asked. “She wants views. Her followers have doubled since she disappeared. Extreme wants the publicity. Or she wanted to get away, from something, from someone. Maybe she killed herself.”

“Blake!”

He offered an exaggerated shrug. “I mean, who knows?”

Violet kept scrolling through the article. “It says here that during the investigation, it was revealed that Maverick and Chloe knew each other from the extreme-sports circuit. There are rumors they were together, something that Maverick at first denied, then admitted was true.”

“So what if theyweredating?” said Blake. “What does that prove?”

How could he be so cavalier about this?

“If you knew about this, how could you suggest that Mom go?” Violet asked, her voice coming up an octave. “How was Extreme even allowed to do another challenge?”

“That’s my point,” Blake said. “If it was real, they would have been shut down, right?”

She used to think that, that there was some force in the world that kept people from doing bad things over and over. But the news of the world proved that it wasn’t so—the opioid crisis, the war in Ukraine, the planet dying, and corporations running amok. The truth was that no one stopped the worst things from happening.

“What if Mom is…in actual danger?”

Blake gave her that blank look he seemed to have perfected. He wore it when he didn’t want to talk, or when he thought she was being stupid, or when he was just being a jerk.

“Mom,” said Blake, “is fine.Momis badass.”

But so was Dad, she wanted to say. He ran a company. He coached her soccer team. He chased away the monsters hiding in her closet. And now he was gone. Missing like Chloe Miranda. What kept Mom tied to them, especially now that she was off on some adventure,wearing an expression that Violet had never seen on her face? Or what if she wasn’t as strong as she seemed?

But she didn’t say any of those things. Like everything else she was afraid of, she kept it inside. With a last look into the sad eyes of Chloe Miranda, she clicked off the page.

“Mav is going live soon. I just got the WeWatch alert,” said Blake.

She didn’t say anything, the things she’d learned on a spin cycle in her brain. Finally, he grabbed his laptop from the kitchen counter and came to sit next to her.

Usually, she’d push him away, but instead, still feeling shaky and so tired, she shifted closer as his fingers danced across the keyboard. The Extreme WeWatch page came up with a big countdown clock at the top. They were going live in just under ten minutes.

9

ANGELINE

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