I felt Echo’s permission wash through me like a tidal wave, and so I gave Dad the answer he was looking for.
“Dad, he was going to ask Echo to marry him. The woman didn’t seem jealous as much as she seemed to think that Echo was beneath him. She was downright disgusted and acted like he’d committed some cardinal sin.”
A look of understanding crossed my dad’s features as he mumbled, barely loud enough for me to hear him.
“That’s where the ring came from. No one, not me, not your grandparents could figure out where she’d gotten it. For the longest, it was kept as evidence. At least we could explain the necklace. She always wore that.”
The sound of the warning bell ringing had me saying a quick goodbye and taking off toward the school with Drew hot on my heels. As soon as we walked through the front doors, the swarming and questions from all directions hit us. Next to nothing exciting ever happened in this little town, so the news of mine and Drew’s intentional accident had spread like a brush fire. Apparently, the mechanic hadn’t kept his mouth shut like he’d been instructed to. I could hear Echo somewhere deep down laughing; she knew just how much I hated crowds. She found my reaction funny every time it happened. The sweat poured down my back, hot and slick. My skin felt sticky, and my throat turned to ash. The sound of my heart galloped in my ears and picked up its pace as more and more people crowded around us. My hand became clammy in Drew’s, and he looked down at me. I saw the alarm bounce across his face and knew that he knew my anxiety was about to get the best of me. I didn’t want to pass out in the middle of the hall.
Drew pushed and shouted as he tried to clear a path for us. My head was starting to spin like a tilt-a-whirl, and I was sure I had just moments before I passed out cold. I felt a supporting arm snake around my waist as I was starting to sink toward the floor. A loud booming voice shouted to get back, and just as I thought the heat of so many bodies would suffocate me, it disappeared and the feeling of being crowded with it.
“Are you okay, Eden? Come on, girl, look at me.”
I tilted my face upward to peer into the muddy brown pools of Mr. Masson’s eyes. To say that his face was etched with concern wouldn’t do him justice. Nothing about Mr. Masson was etched; he was something more akin to chiseled. It’s why all the girls were bonkers about him. He had that all business personality, but every once in a while, you’d see this funny, relaxed guy that lived beneath the surface of all the facial hair. For a man that sported a goatee, he sure did keep the hair on his head military short. He waved a hand in front of my eyes.
“Can you hear me, Eden?”
I nodded as the suffocating fog I had experienced dissipated. With Mr. Masson’s help, I stood up straight again and watched as what kids remained skittered off to class when Mr. Masson glared at them.
“I heard about the accident. I’m glad you are both okay, come on and I’ll get y’all a tardy pass.”
We followed him down the hall and into the coach’s office. He wrote Drew out a pass, and when he just stood there waiting, Mr. Masson peered at him over his reading glasses. “
“You can go now, Mr. Graves.”
“With all due respect, sir, I promised Mr. Garrows that I would walk Eden to and from all her classes.”
“Well, make sure you get to her second period on time. I will walk her to the first period. Get scooting now, and I’ll be there in a minute. Just put that slip on my desk, so I remember to file it.”
Drew leaned in to kiss me goodbye but stopped short when Mr. Masson cleared his throat and slowly shook his head. Drew glowered at Mr. Masson, who shot him a dazzling smile in return.
“I’ll see you at the end of class, Eden, I’ll be there before the bell rings.”
I watched him leave, and when I faced Mr. Masson, he didn’t try to hide the fact that he’d been watching me.
“So Echo, do they have any ideas as to who is behind what happened to you and Drew? Are there any leads at all?”
I was about to answer, but then I realized what he’d called me.
“Wait—what did you just call me?”
The expression of alarm was so quick that I would have missed it had I not been paying close attention. Mr. Masson took a moment and then sighed.
“Well, that was going to be my next question. You know how rumors fly in this town. With the Garrows case being reopened and the attempt on your life, many are speculating that you are Echo’s daughter. There’s a huge conspiracy about the whole ordeal circulating through the town. I was thinking about that when I asked you about the leads. My mistake I mixed up the names. Is there any truth to the rumors?”
The shock of what he’d said and how accurate it was, zigzagged through me like a bolt of lightning. I stayed quiet a little too long, and the expression on his face shifted. I knew he knew the rumors were true. Slowly, he rose from the corner of his desk and walked past me to close the office door. He paced the room, and his brow furrowed with worry.
“If the people around here were able to figure out the true nature of your parentage, then it is a fair assumption that whoever killed Echo knows as
