Page 64 of Soulmates

“Lizzie!” Carter said.

“What? Sorry. It’s true.”

“It’s fine,” Maddox said. “Please continue.”

“He didn’t look like a man whose son was potentially dead. He was calm and seemed irritated by the rest of us and our shouting and demanding of answers. He just asked Dean Forrester if he was aware of your whereabouts. Dean Forrester looked him square in the face and lied.”

“How did you know he lied?” Jake asked.

“I’ve taken lessons with him for years on masking. Voids still sometimes need to hide what we are. Lying is part of that. He was lying. I was sure. He told Mr. St. James that he had no idea where his son was and perhaps he should take it up with the board.”

“Oh Gods,” Maddox said.

“I know.” Lizzie looked right at him. “Your mother burst into tears and turned to Mrs. Osterman, who rushed her off to the side. Your father stared down Forrester until he finally just said, ‘I’ll do that,’ and walked off.”

“Sounds about right,” Santiago said.

“Yeah,” Lizzie said. “He didn’t care, wasn’t worried, and wasn’t trying to hide it, which, to me, is the strangest part. Wouldn’t he at least act like he cared?”

“I don’t know. He doesn’t have a vast range of emotions. He’s blank, angry, or cordial. There is no warmth there, or at least there hasn’t been for the past decade. He used to have a smile or laugh for at least my mother, but that’s been gone for a while,” Maddox said.

Jake reached across the back of the couch to wrap his arm around Maddox’s shoulder. Maddox tensed. “It’s fine.”

“It’s not,” Jake said.

“Well, it is what it is,” Maddox said.

“Forrester pulled us aside—well, us and Diego—and gave us the basics of what happened and where you went. He told us to come back in a few days when the families cleared out and he’d tell us more,” Carter said.

“Was Diego alright?” Santiago asked.

“Seemed fine. He told us he turned into a lion and tried to eat you,” Carter said with a laugh. “He also tried to come with us once Forrester and Professor Hooper told us how to find you, but there wasn’t a good enough cover story for him to come too.”

“What’s your cover story?” Maddox asked.

“Oh, we’re engaged,” Lizzie said and held her left hand up, where a silvery band held a giant black diamond.

“You got engaged?” Maddox said, turning to Carter. “I thought you were asking her after graduation?”

“Well, we had to be able to run off, and what better excuse than wanting to celebrate our engagement?” Lizzie said, glancing down at her ring, looking inordinately pleased.

“I can’t believe you rushed that just to come here,” Maddox said to Carter.

“Oh, I didn’t,” Carter said.

Lizzie laughed in a way Jake had rarely heard from her. “Don’t be ridiculous. I asked,” Lizzie said.

“What on earth?” Maddox said.

“You think I didn’t know about the ring? Carter is terrible at secrets. Honestly, he shouldn’t even try. We needed a reason to leave town, so I made him give me the ring.”

“Come on,” Carter said. “It was a little more romantic than that.”

“Sure, sure,” Lizzie said. “Romantic as hell. We can have romance later when our friends aren’t in this much shit.”

“I’m sorry you had to rush your engagement,” Maddox said.

“Please don’t be,” Lizzie said. “I knew he was going to ask. We know we’ll be together forever. The engagement is just the precursor to the epic wedding anyway.” Lizzie smiled. Carter grinned at her, shaking his head and looking both pleased and resigned. Jake figured resignation was the only way to survive Lizzie but didn’t say so.

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