The boy’s smile faltered as Audrey glared at him.
“You’re not Mary, are you?” he asked softly.
“Answer my question first,” Audrey demanded. “Who are you?”
The boy ran his hands through his hair, muttering, “Mary told me that she had a sister, but she didn’t tell me that you two were identical.” He looked at Audrey as if staring at her long enough would reveal the truth. It didn’t.
“Where is she?”
Ignoring his question, Audrey glowered back. “The answer to my question. Now.”
The boy let out an exasperated sigh. “Lucas. That’s my name.” Lucas looked behind Audrey. “Is Mary coming with you?”
Audrey scowled. “No last name, no answers.”
“Fine, fine, my last name is Meret. I’m Mary’s friend,” Lucas responded. He peeked at Audrey for any sign of recognition, but when he realized that she didn’t even bat an eye, his shoulders dropped, releasing their hunched tension. “It’s just–I’m worried about her, okay? Is she sick? It’s not like Mary to ghost people.”
Mary’s friend? Him? A friend of Mary? Audrey thought.
Lucas continued, oblivious to Audrey’s disorientation. “By the way, what’s your name?”
Audrey shook away her confusion as she digested the facts. So Lucas knew Mary, and when Mary went out for a run, she was actually secretly meeting Lucas. Why did–no, had–Mary kept this secret from her?
“Well, to answer your first question, Lucas Meret, no, Mary’s not sick. She’s… dead.” Audrey grimaced, but she was stronger now, could meet the truth heads on. “Killed in a car accident, four months and seventeen days ago. The day she stopped texting you, I presume.”
Audrey paused, all thoughts of stranger danger slowly dissipating. Why did she even have to put up such a cold front if she had nothing to lose? The Audrey she had been before, the Audrey who had a twin, a companion–someone to live for–was gone. Who was she kidding? She didn’t deserve to be here.
She never had.
Stepping forward and giving Lucas a blood-chilling stare, Audrey finally spoke.
“And to answer your second question, I’m Audrey, the black sheep of the Zaeton family. The one who should be dead.”
***
“Faven, please drive me home,” Lucas murmured. His bodyguard narrowed her eyes at him from the rearview mirror.
“Did she show up?” Faven asked, her eyes returning to the road. After all, there was no other purpose for this daily drive to the park–and at 5 in the morning, nonetheless–aside from waiting for Mary. But this time, her charge came back early–too early.
A solitary tear slid down Lucas’s cheek.
“Not in the way I hoped to see.”
***
Back at home, Lucas recounted the conversation that he had with Audrey. It couldn’t be true. Surely, it couldn’t. How could it? Tomorrow, he would go to the library and Mary would be there, wrapped up in whatever book she had, and tease him. Then she would explain how she had lost her phone, or been sick–anything but that. Yet the haunting words that sprang from Audrey’s mouth had already latched onto Lucas’s mind, taunting him.
“It wasn’t even nine in the morning when some crazy lady got drunk and started speeding,” Audrey had said. “Mary just wanted to help the cardboard lady across the road and then… she was gone.”
“You’re kidding, right? If Mary put you up to this because she thought I would be mad that she ghosted me, tell her that it doesn’t matter,” Lucas responded pleadingly. It wasn’t true, it wasn’t true–but it was true.
“I’m sorry,” Audrey said, avoiding Lucas’s gaze. “But she’s gone.”
That same morning, much to Faven’s dismay, crashes and screams erupted from Lucas’ room.
***
If there’s a god out there, bring back Mary. Please. I’ll do anything. I’ll–
“Elena York has been pestering me,” Mr. Meret said, interrupting his son’s train of thought. “I don’t know what she wants, aside from Father’s inheritance–oh, and our legal team.”
“Honestly, Brone, why don’t you just report her to the authorities? Heaven knows how many times she’s broken the law, what with her stalking and harassing us,” Mrs. Meret commented.
Mr. Meret served himself some rice and vegetables, choosing his words carefully. “Claudia, she’s technically family–I’d be disrespecting my father if I sent her to prison. Besides, her imprisonment would make the company look bad.”
Lucas’s mom rolled her eyes. “Brone, she might be your half-sister, but you’ll be doing her a favor if you reported it. Besides, she already makes us look bad when she loiters around the building at closing time. What does she even want with our legal team?”
Ignoring his wife’s first remarks, Mr. Meret answered, “I heard that she’s being tried for vehicular manslaughter. Got too drunk and killed two.”
Lucas looked up, tense, showing the first few signs of interest since he sat down for dinner, his grip tightening around the steak knife in his hand. Car accident. Two deaths. Drunk driver. I’m being crazy, Lucas thought. It couldn’t have been. Mary couldn’t have been targeted because of him.
But it didn’t hurt to ask.
“Father, when did Mrs. York get in her accident?”
Mr. Meret jumped in his seat, as if he had forgotten that Lucas was there. Well,” he said, a bit shaken, “apparently she got in her accident around four months ago–I think February? Anyways, what’s the matter? She didn’t pester you today, did she?”
Lucas’s heart skipped a beat, but his expression was deadpan.
“No, Father.”
***
When all the dinner dishes were cleared away and mandatory family pleasantries were exchanged, Lucas excused himself from the living room and headed up to his room for “self-care”. His parents had mindlessly waved him away, conversing about the matters of Meret Tech. Faven followed wordlessly.
Upon reaching the landing, she cornered him.
“Listen, you know I hate to meddle in your personal business, but Mary’s dead, isn’t she?”
Lucas’s puffy, red eyes gave the confirmation Faven needed.
She continued. “And judging by how angrily you were cutting your steak during that exchange between your parents, you think that Elena York had something to do with Mary’s death.”
“It’s too much of a coincidence, don’t you think?” Lucas answered softly.
Lucas’s guard nodded. “We both know that Elena York has been out to get the Meret family and that she’s practically been stalking you guys; York’s the reason why your parents beefed up security. I can ask my friends to see what–”
“Do you think,” Lucas whispered, his eyes filling up with tears, “that Mary died because of me? If she had never met me, she wouldn’t have been in Mrs. York’s line of sight or marked as someone in my life, and she could’ve–”
“Lucas,” Faven said reassuringly, “Mary’s death was not your fault. It was just a case of wrong place, wrong time. Besides, York isn’t the type to kill people, and she was drunk. It could’ve just been, like you said, an awfully gruesome coincidence.”
Lucas was still unconvinced. Faven sighed.
“Don’t beat yourself up over this. Mary wouldn’t want this.” Lucas’s bodyguard racked her brain for sleep aids. “Want me to brew you some chamomile tea?”
Lucas shook his head. “I’ll–I’ll just read.” He entered his room, closing the door silently behind him.
In all her years of being Lucas’s bodyguard, Faven had never seen him so hopeless or shattered, not even when he was neglected and forgotten by his classmates and family.
A crushed expression, Faven decided, did not belong on Lucas’s face.
