Legacy of Lies (18 page)

Aespite what I said about staying the way we were, I changed. I, who have always believed in speaking my mind and made it my mission to uncover the truth, have found myself keeping secrets. Sometimes life is more complicated than the simple rules we make for it.

In the morning that followed my poisoning, Grandmother, Matt, and I agreed to keep silent. Jamie believed his mother had become mentally confused, unintentionally giving me something that made me ill. He came to the hospital to tell us that, even brought the teacup from which I had drunk, so it could be tested and the doctors would know how to treat me. But I had already been diagnosed with an overdose of redcreep. We threw the cup in the trash.

Sophie and Alex came to the hospital together that
day. I saw the brightness in Sophie’s eyes, then the delicate chain around her neck.

“That pendant looks familiar,” I said.

She smiled. “Alex bought it for me.”

In the year since, they’ve become the best of friends again, and the best of sweethearts-again.

As for Grandmother, she, too, has changed, though I certainly wouldn’t point it out to her. I suppose it’s hard to keep your life the same when two extra grandsons, my rough-and-tumble brothers, come barreling through on holidays.

Matt’s at Chase College now on a lacrosse scholarship. I’m applying to colleges in Maryland. And we’re keeping another secret, though maybe not as well as we thought. Just the other day Jamie stopped me on High Street. “You know,” he said. “I make wedding cakes.”

about the author
 

A former high school and college teacher with a Ph.D. in English literature from the University of Rochester,
ELIZABETH CHANDLER
now writes full time and enjoys visiting schools to talk about the process of creating books. She has written numerous picture books for children under her real name, Mary Claire Helldorfer, as well as romances for teens under her pen name, Elizabeth Chandler. Her romance novels include
Hot Summer Nights, Love Happens, At First Sight, I Do
, and the romance-mystery trilogy
Kissed by an Angel
, published by Archway Paperbacks.

When not writing, Mary Claire enjoys biking, gardening, watching sports, and daydreaming. She has been a die-hard Oriole fan since she was a kid and a day dreamer for just as long. Mary Claire lives in Baltimore with her husband, Bob, and their cat, Puck.

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It happened fast. Just a moment earlier, Chloe had been sitting with Amy and Paul on the observation deck atop Coit Tower in San Francisco.
What would happen if I dropped a penny from up here?
she wondered. She climbed up on the railing and dug into her jeans pocket, hunting for spare change.

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As Chloe tumbled through the fog, all she could think was,
My mother will be so upset when she finds out I skipped school. . . . Maybe all that stuff about your life flashing before your eyes is just bull
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Or maybe Chloe already knew, down in the unconscious depths of her mind, that she still had eight lives to go.

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