How to Get Away with Lying

Chapter 1

Jessi

I Wouldn't be Standing Here if it Weren't For You

The last thing I would have expected on October thirty-first was to find Adley Morgenstern dead in a cemetery.

But then again, Adley seemed to have a way of ruining everything.

After all, right when she was going to pay for her crimes, Adley had decided to go and off herself. Now, a month after her death, I was forced to sit through her funeral, listening to people praise her as if she hadn't been a cold-blooded murderer.

"–and I know that Adley is in a better place now. I bet she and my sister are already up to no good," Ethan Landers laughed softly from his spot at the front of the church. I watched as he wiped a hand under his eyes. Anger bubbled inside me rather than sympathy.

Ethan shouldn't have been wasting a single tear on his sister's killer.

No one should have been.

Switching focuses, I looked toward Adley's brother, Caleb – who had been at college until recently – and Adley's mother, who were standing to Ethan's right. Ms. Morgenstern was leaning against her son's shoulder as if he was the only thing keeping her upright. She sniffled into a light blue handkerchief, while Caleb stared into the distance, his face unreadable.

Would they still feel the same if they knew what Adley was?

I was so caught up in my thoughts that I didn't notice Ms. Morgenstern calling my name until my dad nudged me, gesturing toward the empty podium.

Whatever, I thought, feeling people's eyes on me. I slid out of the pew that I was sitting in, then made my way to the front of the church. I've got a free pass for being weird. I'm supposed to be devastated and all that.

Once I made it to the front of the church, I looked out at the sea of people. I suddenly felt a little dizzy. The déjà-vu in the church was overwhelming.

I gazed around the church. In place of the red roses that had adorned the building during Anna's funeral, there were now white carnations. Anna's photo had also been swapped out for Adley's so that instead of an angel's face, a murderer's stared back.

I looked back at the audience, feeling the familiar urge to chew my nails. But I wasn't about to let a speech at Adley's funeral make me nervous.

So, instead, I gripped the edges of the podium and took a deep breath – more to calm my anger than anything else. "What is there to say about Adley Morgenstern?"

Would this be considered "burying my problems?"

I watched as the last shovelful of dirt topped off Adley's grave after we exited the church at the end of the ceremony. I now stood awkwardly, sandwiched between Ivy Blackthorn and Nate Tucker, who kept exchanging these strange, sly glances with each other.

Looks like Karma caught up to you, huh, Adley? I thought as I looked down at Adley's headstone – a light gray stone with a few simple designs chiseled on it.

Adley Sofia Morgenstern

Loving Friend and Daughter

May 13th, 1999 – October 31st, 2015

Slowly, everyone then began to disperse, either staring warily at the gloomy sky or trying to comfort Adley's family. Without trying, I could hear people whispering about "the poor Morgenstern family" who had lost two people in only a few years – both Adley and her father.