“Fine with me,” I say. Ella shrugs and Betsey smiles weakly. Sean takes his bag and closes the door; soon we hear the water running. I’ve loved having Sean with me on this trip, but when I find myself alone with Ella and Betsey, I’m relieved. Maybe it’s because I don’t have to put on a brave face anymore.
I sigh heavily as I plunk down onto the bed by the window. Ella sits on the same bed with her back against the headboard and her legs extended; Betsey joins us, folding her legs into a pretzel. I hug my knees and look from Betsey to Ella, then back again.
“So?” I ask when we’re settled. “What the hell is going on?”
Ella’s the one to talk; the usually boisterous Betsey is sedate.
“A while after you left, there was a knock at the front door,” Ella begins. “I opened it, and it was this woman.” She pauses, looking guilty. “I’d seen her before—I’d talked to her before… once at the bookstore. So when she asked to come in for a moment, I let her in. She said she had something important to tell me.” Ella shakes her head at herself. “Who does that—who just lets a stranger in their house?”
“It’s okay,” Betsey says quietly. “You were caught off guard.”
“How did she get to the front porch?” I ask, trying to sort out the logistics. “Through the gate?”
Ella shrugs. “Maybe she scaled it.”
“My guess is that she walked through after you left,” Betsey says, frowning. “We certainly didn’t buzz her in.”
“Anyway,” Ella says, “she asked if anyone else was home, and that’s when Betsey happened to come downstairs. Instead of acting surprised to see two of us, she said, ‘Oh, good: the more the merrier.’ ”
“Who was she?” I ask, gripping my legs.
“Maggie Kendall,” Ella says.
“Who’s Maggie Kendall?” I ask.
“I’m getting to that,” Ella says, crossing her legs and sitting up straighter, making herself a mirror of Bet’s position. “There we were, standing in the entryway. She obviously wanted to come in, but I didn’t invite her, so she just started talking. She didn’t ask if Mom was home: I think she probably waited until she was gone to make her move.
“Maggie told us that she knew Mom in her old life—as a scientist. She said that she does the same type of genetic research that Mom used to do, and that she needed Mom’s help.”
“Why didn’t she just ask Mom for Mom’s help?” I say sarcastically.
“I guess she did, but Mom said no,” Ella says. “Anyway, she pretty much told us that she wanted us to come with her to blackmail Mom. I mean, she didn’t say it in those words, but basically. She said if we didn’t come with her, she’d release Mom’s name to the media and the FBI, along with photos of us.”
“What?” I ask in disbelief.
“I’m serious,” Ella says, and Bet nods. The water turns off in the bathroom, and I listen to the screech of shower curtain rings sliding along the rod.
“So you just went?”
“No judgment,” Ella says sharply. “You have no idea what you would’ve done in that situation. And besides, she offered us something in return.”
“What?” I ask, thinking that there’s no way I’d have just left the house with a random stranger.
“Identities.”
Apparently, what Maggie wanted was pretty reasonable, and what she was offering was a better life. Ella explains that Maggie’s goal was to get Mom to spend a couple of weeks at her facility to try to fix a “hole” in Maggie’s long-running research. All that was asked of Ella and Betsey was a plane ride, a long weekend in Colorado, and a few pints of blood and tissue samples. In return, Maggie would supply driver’s licenses, birth certificates, and Social Security cards for them. There was no mention of me at all.
“But if she waited until I left to come through the gate, she had to have seen me,” I say.
“Maybe she figured two was good enough,” Betsey offers.
“Or maybe she thought that once she lured Mom to her, you’d follow.”
I laugh bitterly. “I guess I did.”
Sean emerges, and when I catch his eyes, he smiles at me so warmly that I want to go crawl into his arms. Instead, he casually walks across the room toward the door.
“I’ll get us some food,” he says quietly, not waiting for a response before leaving.
“It’s nice he came with you,” Betsey says.
“Yeah, it is,” I say.
We’re all quiet a moment before I ask when Mom showed up.
“Maggie called her,” Ella says. “She told us to pack bags, then when we were ready, she called Mom and told her what was happening. She said, ‘Come home quick, or your chickens will have flown the coop.’ ”
“That’s when she ran out of the grocery store,” I say, putting it together.
“I guess,” Ella says. “Anyway, she came home in a hurry. They made us go in the other room; we heard them fighting for a few minutes, but then Mom just gave in. She came and got us and told us we were going to Colorado.”
“Did she say anything about me?” I ask.
“She didn’t,” Ella says.
“She probably didn’t think Maggie knew about you,” Betsey says. “She was probably trying to keep you safe.”
I frown at this, still wondering why Mom didn’t call me. Then I remember that she had no idea where I was. That she’d taken our phone, and believed she’d also taken my secret cell, too. I’d left her no way of getting in touch with me.
“I felt your panic,” I say quietly. “When did that happen?”
“When Mom and Maggie were arguing,” Ella says. “Before then, I was sort of stunned, but then it all hit me and I completely freaked out. For a few minutes, when she just gave in so easily, I started to feel like Mom was somehow in on it. I whispered to Bet that we needed to get out.”
“Which made me panic,” Betsey says. “But there was no time; it was too late. They came and got us before we had the chance to act.”
“Then you left with them?” I ask. “But Mom’s car was in the driveway when I came looking for you.”
“Yes, we went in Maggie’s BMW,” Ella says.
“Oh my god,” I groan. “Is it red?”
“Yes,” Ella says. “Why?”
“I’ve talked to her before, too,” I say quietly. “At the gas station. And I’ve seen her car around. I wonder if I’d have said something…”
“There’s no way you could’ve known,” Betsey says.
“Seriously, no way,” Ella echoes, but it doesn’t make me feel better.
“Tell me about the plane ride,” I say, wanting to change the subject.
Ella sighs. “Maggie and Mom made us sit in the back; they sat in the front, snapping at each other the whole ride. It was completely surreal.” Ella rubs under her eyes and smears her mascara a little. “Then we landed and there was a car waiting to pick us up. It took us to the dorm.
“Mom went in with us, but she only stayed a minute—she went to Maggie’s lab with her and stayed there all night. But before she left, she whispered into my ear, ‘Where is Lizzie?’ ”