The Sinners - Ruby Vincent Page 0,26

infinitely more tragic in that way because Eli never got to see the family we were when she was alive. He knew my parents as they became after the accident. And he knew the person her death made of me.

I kissed his forehead. “No,” I said honestly. “I’m not okay. After all this time, I’ve accepted that I’ll never be okay.”

Eli’s face crumpled.

“Hey, don’t do that,” I crooned. “Your sister is a big fat mess. You know that better than anyone.” I squeezed his fingers. “You also know that I’m tough. I have to be for us, so I am.”

He tugged free. “You don’t have to be tough for me.”

“I do,” I replied. “Because I found something at the grave that might make life very difficult for us.”

“What?”

I showed him the key. “This was in the flower vase. I believe Mom and Dad put this there for me to find. It’s why they left the note.”

“Surrender an offering to the goddess.” If Eli said it aloud, his voice would’ve shaken. He was stricken. Eyes wide and staring at the key like our parents’ location was written on it.

Eli and I shared the true meaning of the note from the very beginning. He was there as my father knelt before the headstone, laying flowers for our goddess. In Eli’s case, the police believed him when he told them he didn’t know.

He leveled huge eyes on me. “It was a message for us the entire time. They didn’t leave us, Em.”

“No, they did leave us,” I returned. “They took off with half the town’s money and dumped us on Uncle Harrison and Aunt Violet’s lap. Because of them, we’ve lost our home, friends, and our life. I’m harassed every day and you were attacked.”

Eli flinched.

“This key doesn’t change what they put us through for the last couple of months,” I told him. “It doesn’t change that they’re criminals.”

“They’re not criminals. They’re our mom and dad.” He set his jaw.

“Oh, Eli,” I sighed. “This is why I thought about throwing the key in the forest and forgetting I ever saw it. Finding this doesn’t mean the four of us are heading toward a happy reunion. Do you realize what this means?”

“It means we have to find out what this opens.”

“And what happens if we do?” I pressed. “What if this is for a safe-deposit box and there’s twenty-five million dollars inside? We’d have to turn it in to the police. Or what if inside there’s an address to where they’re hiding? Then we have the awful choice of turning our parents over to the cops.”

“We don’t have to tell anyone.” His reply was angry and jerky. “If we find them and the money, no one has to know.”

“Eli Francis Bancroft, is that really an option for you?”

My brother shoved away, face tight. He glowered at the green synthetic court. It came slow, but he shook his head.

“No. Okay? No, that’s not an option.” He pinned me with a look. “But you’re wrong too. Those aren’t the only two choices. We could find Mom and Dad and make them do the right thing.”

“They’re looking at prison cells if they do.”

“No, they’re looking at being without us if they don’t.” He tapped my palm. “If they were fine with that, they wouldn’t have given you the key. I told you they wouldn’t just leave us. I told you.”

I dropped my head in my hands, rubbing my temples. Why shouldn’t this be impossible? Everything else in my life was.

A light touch grazed my cheek. “I miss them, Em.”

I’d never been able to say no to my brother when he looked at me like refusal would rip him apart.

“Please.”

This time was no different.

“Okay,” I said, feeling myself rip apart instead. “I’ll do whatever it takes to figure this out.”

“I’ll help you.”

“No, what you’ll do is be a fourteen-year-old kid and let your biggest problems be studying for midterms and getting that cute girl in Spanish class that you think I don’t know about to notice you. I’m your big sister. I will take care of the rest.”

We hugged tight, cried sloppily, and tilted on the edge of the irrevocable consequences facing us. Our parents and the town’s future were out there. Time to bring them home.

Chapter Three

“The kid has you wrapped.”

“Ugh. Don’t rub it in.”

Royal grinned up at me. I rode him straddle-style, sitting on his lap while I considered the key. My human seat was looking pretty pleased with himself, and why wouldn’t he? I dropped