Page 139 of Hello Stranger

“But my name,” the lady went on, “is Augusta Ross.”

Okay, we may not have remembered the person—but absolutely no one in our family couldeverhave forgotten that name.

Lucinda dropped her purse at the sound of it, and Augusta politely picked it up for her.

“Augusta Ross?” Lucinda confirmed.

“It’s so lucky I ran into you,” Augusta went on with determined brightness. “I’ve been wanting to reach out.”

“Why,” Lucinda asked, “would you want to do that?”

“And it’s so lucky that I arrived just when I did, don’t you think? Here I was, coming to see the art show of my dear old friend Sadie, and what should I hear as I walk up to the building but Sadie herself, shouting my name.”

Nobody knew what to say to that. Not even me.

I was still wrapping my head around it. Augusta Ross was here?TheAugusta Ross?

“Just to bring you up to speed,” Augusta said, her voice still aggressively bright. “After my suicide attempt all those years ago, my parents moved us across the country. As you can imagine, they cut off all contact with people we’d known back here. Life was hard enough for a while, and I just did my best to put it all behind me. Blah-blah-blah—I grew up, went to Stanford for art history, got offered a fantastic job with Rice University, and wound up moving back here last summer. Over my parents’ objections, of course.”

Safe to say, nobody in my sad little family had any idea where all this was heading.

“Anyway,” Augusta went on, all chatty, “after I moved back, I started bumping into old classmates and hearing the craziest stories about that whole me-getting-bullied-to-the-brink-of-suicide thing. The craziest of all was—and I just keep feeling like this can’t be true—that Sadie was the one who got blamed for the bullying. That’s not right, is it?”

I glanced at Parker. The smugness had most definitely faded from her vibe.

“Well…” Lucinda said, glancing at my dad. “The school takes a zero-tolerance stance on bullying…”

“As they should,” Augusta said. “ButSadie,as I believe she was just telling you, is not the person who bullied me.”

We all just stared at Augusta in mute astonishment.

“The person who bullied me,” Augusta went on, “was Parker.”

“Parker!” Lucinda said, as if Augusta had just said “Taylor Swift.”

“Oh, yeah,” Augusta went on. “That whole year. She left notes in my locker. She picked on my clothes. She told me I was ugly, and no one would ever love me, and I should just give up. Daily. Hourly, sometimes.Hooooo-boy—she was vicious.”

Lucinda took a stunned step back.

“Sadie was always super nice,” Augusta said, nodding at me approvingly. “In fact, she’s still nice.”

Then Augusta walked closer to me and handed over a little bundle. “Here’s your dress back,” she said.

I looked down. “My dress?”

“Your ruffle dress,” she said, just as I saw the polka-dot fabric.

I put it together. “You’re the coffee girl? That was you?”

“You didn’t recognize me that day,” Augusta said. “I’ve changed a lot.”

Hadn’t we all?

“ButIrecognizedyou,” she went on. “I was just coming over to say hi when Parker knocked me down. And then you were helping me up and giving me your dress. Sweet as ever. I thought about saying something then, but I was so late. I googled you later to find a way to bring your dress back, and I saw the notice about the art show.”

“Did you make it to the airport?” I asked.

Augusta nodded and held up a sparkly engagement ring. “I did.” Then she turned back to my dad and Lucinda. “I was going to write you a letter to set things straight. And I really just came here tonight to say hi to Sadie and support her show. But then I wound up eavesdropping… and I couldn’t resist jumping in.”

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