Page 83 of Wicked Games (Fallen Royals 2)

I stare at her.

“I’m just searching general sentencing,” she explains. “It’s confusing without knowing what he was charged with. But unless he was found with a lot of drugs…”

“He was arrested in a park,” I say. “He was with me.”

“What about his lawyer?”

My eyes widen. “Oh fuck.”

“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.

“How could I forget? We ran into a man—he was petrified to see Caleb… and then me. Caleb said he was my dad’s lawyer.”

“What the fuck,” she whispers. “You’re in the middle of a freaking conspiracy here.”

“I know.”

“What was his name?”

“Tobias. I don’t know his last name.”

“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?”

She shakes her head. “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?”

“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.”

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

Her jaw drops. “Maybe you should’ve led with that!”

I wince. I still don’t know how I feel about it. She’s in the same town as me—and if not Rose Hill, she’s definitely in the county. “She doesn’t want to see me.”

“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 absentees, 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. But Caleb told me last night.”

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

“Okay, so let’s just make sure I have this right. Savannah double-crossed us. Your mom’s back in town. We need to find your dad’s lawyer. Caleb and you are back together—”

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