Charlotte studied the place cards, then looked up at her mother, who’d just returned to the dining room. “Don’t we need another glass for Dad?”
A strained look passed over Mrs. Chamberlain’s face.
“He’s not coming,” she said quickly. “He got stuck at work.”
“Again?” An edge sharpened Charlotte’s voice.
“Will you get the bottle of Sancerre for me please, Charlotte?” Mrs. Chamberlain suggested tensely. A long pause ensued. Emma recalled how she’d seen Mr.
Chamberlain at Sabino Canyon the day she arrived in Tucson, when he was supposed to be out of town. Perhaps he was hiding something—and perhaps Charlotte and her mother had their suspicions about what it was.
Charlotte yanked a pinkish-colored bottle from a wine fridge that was built into a cabinet next to the sink, clapped a bottle opener over the cork, and poured a glass for her mother. She then lifted her own glass of Perrier by the stem and held it high in the air. Mrs. Chamberlain, Madeline, Emma, and Laurel followed suit.
“To a fabulous dinner party,” Mrs. Chamberlain said.
The five of them clinked glasses and took sips.
Cornelia, the personal chef, who had stiff gray hair and a round, pie-like face, carried in a roast, red potatoes, a big chopped salad, and warm garlic bread.
“So tell me about this party you girls planned,” Mrs.
Chamberlain said after taking a delicate bite of meat.
“Where is it again?”
“Uh, a country club across town,” Charlotte lied smoothly. It wasn’t as if they were going to tell Mrs.
Chamberlain they were going to a foreclosed house.
“It’s going to be sick,” Madeline said. “Everyone from Holl ier is going to be there.”
“We invited people from a couple of the prep schools, too,” Charlotte added.
“What she means is, we invited guys from the prep schools.” Laurel adjusted a feather barrette in her hair.
Charlotte gave her a playful punch. “You better be grateful we’re letting you come.” Emma looked back and forth at them, amazed they were talking about this in front of Mrs. Chamberlain—
weren’t parents supposed to frown at the idea of parties?
But Charlotte’s mom was smiling and nodding like she thought it was all great.
I remembered being so jealous of Charlotte’s mom, wishing that my mom was more like her. But watching from afar, seeing how sweet my mom was with Emma, I wondered. Did Char’s mom give her advice in the middle of the night, or just beauty tips and pointers on plastic surgery? It made me realize once more how much I’d taken my mom for granted.
Sutton’s iPhone vibrated in Emma’s lap. She pulled it out of her clutch and gazed at the screen under the table.
ANY CHANCE YOU CAN PICK ME UP? asked a text from Ethan.
MY CAR WON’T START.
Emma’s nerves buzzed. This was really happening.
They were really going to a party … together. SURE THING, she wrote back. BE THERE IN AN HOUR. She hit send.
“Who are you writing to, Sutton?” Laurel asked, peering at Emma across the table.
Emma clenched her fists in her lap. “That’s for me to know and you to find out,” she said breezily. The girls would know soon enough when she and Ethan arrived at the party; she didn’t need it to dominate the dinner discussion now.
As the meal progressed, Mrs. Chamberlain regaled them with some of her favorite high school memories, many of which involved becoming Homecoming Queen two years in a row. After the girls carried their plates to the sink and got dishes out for dessert, Emma excused herself to the powder room in the hall. Just as her hand grazed the doorknob, she noticed a glowing greenish light down the hall, right near the foyer. The Chamberlains’ alarm system.
She looked around. The girls were in the dining room, chattering on about Laurel’s most recent date with Caleb.
Mrs. Chamberlain was out on the back porch, smoking a cigarette. No one was watching.
She tiptoed down the hall and peered at the security system. It was a simple setup with an LCD touchscreen, like an iPad, with numbered buttons for entering a code.
Whoever had disabled the alarm would have had to use their fingers. If Thayer hadn’t wiped down the screen after letting himself in, maybe his prints were still on it.
“Sutton?” Madeline’s voice called. Emma looked up to see her standing in the hall, peering at her. “What are you doing?”
“Just checking out this photo,” Emma lied, pointing to a framed black-and-white photograph of a young Paul McCartney that hung next to the alarm.
She scuttled back to the dining table just as Mrs.
Chamberlain brought out chocolate mousses in individual goblets. “Cornelia’s specialty!” she exclaimed. “It’s going to be soooo good!”
The girls made appreciative coos and dug in. When Mrs. Chamberlain returned to the kitchen, Laurel leaned across the table, a hint of chocolate on her lips. “You know what else is going to be good? Our prank on Ethan Landry.” She glanced at Emma, raising her eyebrows. “I hope you asked him to come help us set up tonight.”
“Seriously.” Charlotte clapped her hands together.
“The prank’s going to be amazing!” Madeline cackled with delight. Only Emma stared at her plate, a queasy feeling trickling through her stomach.
Laurel pouted at her from across the table. “What’s wrong, Sutton? Don’t you think it’s a perfect prank?” Emma swallowed a sip of Perrier, its bubbling tartness tickling her nose. The way she saw it, she had two options: buckle to Laurel’s whims and go along with this, or stand up for herself and make Old Emma proud. She took a deep breath.
“Actually, I think it’s a horrible idea,” she said. “We already got Ethan once, remember? I’ve decided. I’m not being part of the prank. You girls will have to go it alone.” Madeline’s face fell. Charlotte wrinkled her nose.
Laurel’s cheeks reddened. “You what?” she snapped.
Emma knew she was doing a little bit of damage to Sutton’s reputation, but she didn’t care. She stood, placing her spoon to the side of her untouched mousse. “Charlotte, please tell your mom thanks for the delicious dinner.
There’s someplace I need to be right now. I’ll see you ladies at the party.” She glanced at Laurel. “I assume you can get a ride with one of them?”
Laurel stared back at Emma, her mouth hanging open.
She didn’t say a word as Emma sailed from the room and out the front door, her head held high. Sutton’s friends watched her the whole way. No one said a word.
And that, I thought, was how you make a dramatic exit.
26
FORECLOSED BUT NOT
FORGOTTEN
When Emma pulled up to Ethan’s driveway, she was still flying high from finally standing up to the girls about the prank. She had a big smile on her face as she exited the car, but her expression quickly shifted when Ethan slunk out his front door and slammed it shut, his stealthy, guilty posture that of someone sneaking out.
“Everything okay?” Emma asked as Ethan jogged across the lawn.
“Sure.” Ethan ran a hand over his close-cropped hair.
“My mom was just giving me shit about chores. That’s all.”
“Been there,” Emma said. “Should I go in and say hi?
I’d like to meet her.”
There was a miniscule pause. “Another time,” Ethan finally said. Then he leaned forward and kissed her cheek.
“You look gorgeous. Love that dress.”
You noticed, Emma thought, butterflies sweeping through her stomach. She smoothed down the skirt of the emerald green dress. “You look pretty good yourself.” Ethan was wearing dark-wash Levi’s and a fitted, olive green button-down that showed off his trim waist and broad shoulders.
Emma gestured to Sutton’s car, and Ethan let out a low, appreciative whistle and got into the passenger seat.
“I’ve only seen this ride from afar—Sutton used to freak if anyone but her friends got near it in the parking lot. I never thought I’d actually get to sit in it.”
“Well, there’s a new Sutton in town,” Emma giggled.
That didn’t mean the new Sutton could mess up my car, I thought in annoyance. Emma better maintain it.
“So the party’s in a foreclosed mansion in the foothills, apparently somewhere called Legends Road,” Emma said.
“Do you know where that is?”
“I’ll show you the way.” A grin spread across Ethan’s face. “An abandoned house. It’s crazy. Sounds much more interesting than the usual Holl ier parties.” Emma smirked. “How many Holl ier parties have you actually been to, loner boy?”
“You got me.” Ethan ducked his head. “Not many.” There was a long pause. Something pulsed in the air between them. Maybe it was that tonight was their first appearance as an actual couple. As Emma shifted gears and sped down Ethan’s street, she realized that her stomach was humming with nerves. She peeked at Ethan, noticing how he was repeatedly licking his lips. Maybe he was nervous, too.
“So what’s wrong with your car?” Emma asked.
Ethan shrugged. “It probably just needs to be jumped.
I’ll deal with it tomorrow.”
They turned onto the main road and passed Sabino Canyon. Emma felt a twinge of dread—it was the spot where she’d first arranged to meet Sutton, and where the cops had found Sutton’s car.
And maybe, I thought, where I hit Thayer… and he killed me.
Emma drove higher into the foothills, the Catalina Mountains shimmering red in the setting sun. The road twisted, and Emma gripped the steering wheel to navigate the turns. The farther north they went, the bigger and grander the houses became. The sky darkened as they passed a luxury strip mall consisting of a wine shop, a Pilates studio, and a bunch of real-estate agencies, another marker for a trailhead, and dozens of Southwest-style mansions tucked into the rocks.
“Hey, is that the street?” Emma interrupted, pointing to a yellow-and-green painted sign marked LEGENDS ROAD.
“Looks like it,” Ethan said, squinting into the semidarkness.
Emma turned onto the road and almost hit a roadrunner that darted across the lane. Desert brush lined the side of the pavement and Emma steered the car around a rock that must have fall en from the bordering cliffs.
“We have to find somewhere secluded to park,” she explained, looking for a good spot on the shoulder. “Mads says we can’t park in front of the house—that’ll tip off the police that we’re throwing a party there.” But she didn’t want to park just anywhere, either—Sutton’s car had been impounded, partly, for unpaid traffic violations. All she needed was Detective Quinlan finding yet another reason to drag her down to the station.
The road zigged and zagged, the land barren on either side of them. “There aren’t any other houses here?” Emma said aloud.
“Strange.” Ethan glanced out the window at a tangled tree branch that reached like fingers toward the windshield.
“Maybe whoever had this place owned the surrounding land, too. It’s one way to guarantee the view.” Emma drove another half mile before a towering white stone mansion came into sight. Oval arches shot high into the evening sky, and immaculate black shutters framed wide, ill uminated windows. A massive balcony jutted from the side of the house and soared over a cliff that dropped at least one hundred feet to a rocky bottom. A FOR SALE
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