“No,” Summer said numbly.
“She’s known about it for a while, Summer. I’m so sorry.”
That was it: that was the lie. He lied with clear, bright eyes and an easy smile. It wasn’t his true self; she’d heard his true self speak to Sammy. Summer, who was tired and hungry, began to tremble. Just yesterday, she’d trusted this man with her whole entire heart, and now she could barely look at him. The things she’d taken from the envelope were just feet away. If he found those…if he knew what she’d seen…
“She never came back to the room. I waited here for her.”
“She must have come back because she locked the door,” Taured said.
“It’s never been locked before,” Summer argued. “It was like someone locked me in here on purpose.”
“Why would someone do that?” He was frowning now, his eyes alight with curiosity. “No one wants to hurt you here, Summertime, you know that.”
She looked at his face: it looked honest…kind. When he smiled, creases appeared at the corners of his eyes. He smelled like soap and cloves—good things. He played with the little kids, tossing them into the air and tickling them until they squealed. He sang on some nights, while he played the guitar, and his voice froze everyone to complete stillness until the last verse.
The sins of the parents will be visited on the children.
“She always tells me when she’s leaving and she always says goodbye, so I was confused,” Summer said.
Taured seemed to look right into her when he said, “Did y’all have a fight? You certainly ran out of the cafeteria in a hurry…”
So he had been paying attention to more than just Feena and Jon. If she said yes, he’d ask her what the fight was about, but if she denied it, he’d know she was lying. Either way, she was royally screwed. She decided her best bet was distraction.
She kept her voice light so it didn’t sound like she was challenging him. “I’m surprised you noticed. You seemed to be very focused on what you were doing.” She could keep her expression scraped of anger, but her voice was another story altogether. Everything she said sounded like a challenge and she hadn’t intended—
“And what was I doing, Summer?” There was a threat dangling in his question.
Summer imagined herself standing on a tall ledge, balancing her weight so she didn’t fall. Her mother was en route to Florida, and she was stuck here for the next few months on her own. She would make it hard for herself by picking a fight with Taured. She’d seen what happened to the people who did it. Her dad, her drug-loving con man of a father, used to say, “Tell an honest lie when you need to.”
“You were welcoming our new family members.”
“That’s right,” he said, locking his eyes on to hers. “And what were you doing?”
She shrugged, trying to flatten her tone, but her heart was racing. “I left dinner early. I didn’t eat because I’m fasting. I didn’t want to be tempted, you know?”
He seemed to consider this for a moment, and then in a gentler tone, he said, “Was your mother upset that you were fasting?” His eyes were scanning back and forth across her face like he was trying to read her.
“I don’t know,” she lied. She tried to look bored.
“Come with me,” Taured said, his eyebrows raising in concern. “I think we need to have Doc look you over.”
Her head jerked away from the wall. “I’m fine,” she said. She didn’t like Sara’s father; his eyes and hands lingered where they shouldn’t.
“It wasn’t a suggestion, Summer.”
“Okay,” she said. She would have said anything he wanted in that moment; she just wanted out of that room with its pressing walls and suffocating air. Feeling small and afraid, she ducked her head in shame to hide her tears.
“Can I call my mother?”
He didn’t answer. She fell into step behind him. He was walking quickly, like he wanted to be done with her. Summer had never felt lonelier than in that moment, following a man who meant her harm—who meant her mother harm. When he was speaking to Sammy, he’d sounded like a different person. Summer had the urgent idea that maybe it wasn’t Taured all along; maybe she’d just thought it was Taured and she’d been listening to someone else entirely. Her hope fizzled out when she remembered that Sammy had called him by name. Just yesterday morning she’d trusted him, probably more than she trusted her mother. How long had her mother known that her daughter was a traitor, ready to rat her out? She was as bad as Sammy. The shame Summer felt was consuming. She could barely look at Taured now. When had she made him her most important person? Her mother said they were to be foreigners in this land, but here she was, lapping up the hometown honey.