Page 76 of Your Echo
“I don’t know why they put that on the bracelet. I had to bring him to the hospital once, back when we were freshmen. Alcohol poisoning, of course. It said the same thing then. I asked him about it while he was still drunk, and that’s...that’s how I found out.”
“Found out what?”
There’s a ringing sound in my ears. I feel like my brain is screaming something at me, willing me to catch up with a train of thought that’s moving too fast to focus on.
“It’s not really my place to say, but...Well, I guess the bracelet makes it clear. Ace changed his name. It used to be Acton Thompson. I don’t know if he’s told you anything about his parents, but from what I know, they’re something else. He hasn’t spoken to them in years. They live in some giant house up in Westmount—”
I hiss like I’ve just been stabbed.
“The Thompsons,” I say through gritted teeth, “in Westmount.”
“Yeah.” I can’t read the look on Matt’s face. “Do you...know them?”
“Ace is their son?” I demand.
Matt nods. “Although they weren’t really what you’d call ‘parents’ to him. When he was a kid—”
He cuts himself off, and I can see his head spinning as fast as mine. I watch his jaw drop open as he tips forward, bracing himself on Ace’s bed.
“Wait.” He swallows. “Wait a minute. ‘She’s the girl. It was her mom. I didn’t know.’”
We blink at each other. When I speak, it’s with a tremor.
“Last night, he sent me a text. It said: ‘I didn’t know it was you. I swear I didn’t know it was you. I’m sorry.’The day before, I took him to meet my mom. My mother is a paraplegic.” I stop to swallow. “When I was ten, she fell down a flight of stairs while she was working as a cleaner for the Thompsons. I was there. There was a boy watching in the—the window.”
The lump that’s been sitting in the back of my throat morphs into a sob as I choke on the last word.
“God, Stéphanie...”
I’m already backing away from the bed.
“He didn’t do anything. He just watched.”
I thump against the wall on the other side of the room.
“He didn’t do anything!” I wail. “None of them did! NONE OF THEM!”
I run. I turn on my heels and run, but I don’t make it out of the room before I hear Ace start to mumble something from the bed. My vision blurs with tears and Kay is shouting my name, but I don’t stop. I don’t even turn my head. I slam the elevator button over and over until it opens, and when I get to the ground floor, I start running again.
My Keds hit the pavement outside, and it’s a long, long time before I stop.
