their familiar warmth. I blink and look away. “But the Internet is addicting. It tears users apart from the people they love.”
“It doesn’t have to.” Ethan pulls up one more shimmering image of Amy. This one shows her surrounded by her mom, dad, and a panting golden retriever. “Finger-chips make things better if we don’t become obsessed. That’s what they should have taught us in school.”
Chapter Sixteen
McNeal Manor has never looked more imposing. It’s backlit by moonlight and looms in front of me, like the whole mansion anticipates my arrival. But there’s only one person I want to see, and Ms. Lydia isn’t home.
Cal, however, is.
“Blanca,” he says to me as soon as I enter the foyer, like he’s been waiting for me too. “Where were you?”
“At Ethan’s.” I set down my helmet. “Didn’t you get my note?”
“A note?”
“Under your shaving kit?” I prompt.
“No. There wasn’t a note.” Then Cal gasps. “Unless … Let’s check again. I’m positive there was nothing.” He grabs my elbow and pulls me along.
I’ve never seen Cal like this before, so brusque and demanding. It’s making me fearful as I follow him up the stairs and through the halls in silence, trying to figure out what’s going on. Cal doesn’t say anything either, not until the metal door of his room shuts behind us.
It’s dark and quiet, like we’ve happened upon the sleeping stillness of the entire house. Cal turns to me in the half-light and says harshly, “Headmaster Russell is never to come here again. Do you understand me, Blanca? Don’t trust Headmaster Russell! He’s dangerous!”
“Yes, Cal.” I stop myself before “of course.” But how did Cal know about Headmaster Russell coming today? Seth didn’t post the video, after all.
Cal pulls me into the bathroom. He picks up his shaving kit and shakes it out in front of me. “Do you see?” he asks me. “Nothing!”
I don’t know what Cal wants. “I swear,” I say. “I left a note folded up in a square and put it right there.”
Cal looks at me hard. At first I think he’s examining me, trying to discern if I’m lying or not. But then I realize he needs me to listen.
“Lydia must have gotten to your note first.”
“I don’t understand.” I jerk back. “Ms. Lydia wouldn’t do that. She wouldn’t read something that was private.”
“Not like some people,” says a voice from the doorway. Ms. Lydia steps forward, emerging from the shadows.
She’s wearing color.
And she’s holding a gun.
“You thought you could trick me, Calum? You thought you could share our private conversations with that Virus son of yours? Well, the joke’s on you.” Ms. Lydia aims her weapon straight at Cal, like she knows what she’s doing. Then she throws some rope to me. “Tie him up, Blanca.”
Is this a trick? Ms. Lydia knows I can’t do that to my purchaser! I take orders from Cal, not her.
“Well?” Ms. Lydia snaps her fingers. “What are you waiting for?”
But I don’t move.
Cal looks scared. His sun-worn face grows old in the bathroom light. But he also looks brave. “Blanca.” His voice is steady. “Remember your promise. Keep yourself safe.”
Tears roll down my cheeks. I’m so confused I don’t know what’s happening anymore. I take the rope to where Cal stands, and he puts his hands behind him. I tie up his wrists, like Headmaster Russell used to do to us during Discipline Hour.
Then, before I lash the final knot, I feel Cal grab my fingertips. He slips something into my hand that Ms. Lydia can’t see.
It’s his chip-watch.
I tuck it up my sleeve just in time.
Ms. Lydia’s coming toward him, about to knock Cal out cold with her platinum cuff. But right before she does, Cal manages to speak to me, one last time. His brown eyes have never appeared so kind. “Blanca, remember you are loved.”
“Good girl, Blanca,” Lydia says to me across Cal’s slumped-over body. “Now I need to tell you something.”
“What?” There’s nothing Lydia can say that will make me listen, not after what just happened. She doesn’t deserve my respect.
Lydia holsters her gun underneath her jacket. From an inside pocket, she pulls out a picture, folded in two. “This is what you need to know.” She hands the picture to me.
I don’t want to take the photograph, but I do. When I open it, I see it’s the same picture I saw on Veritas Rex, only this picture is in color.
And Lydia’s version is complete.
There before me is her childhood visage, her face a perfect