It's been five years since the sudden disappearance of Cora Cadigan's mother. Five years since the case was closed before it even began.
In the final summer before the end of high school, Cora knows it's her last opportunity to find the answers she...
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"I still can't believe it. After all these years."
The cafe was full tonight. Tables were bustling with groups, mostly people I went to school with.
It was getting to that peak in summer where everyone was starting to enjoy the warmth. The time when work finished for the year and no one had to worry about handing in assignments.
Cameron was working tonight, scrubbing down the tables and bringing out people's orders. He's been helping his mum pay the bills since his dad skipped town a couple of years back.
He nods at me when he catches me watching. I wave back before turning to the group.
"We're so sorry, CeCe," Teagan rests her arm against my shoulder, squeezing gently.
"Thanks," I muster up the best smile I can, still sulking from the news about my dad.
When I got back this morning from Ryan's, dad was passed out on the couch. Later that day he hadn't even asked me where I'd been, he just poured himself another whiskey and started the cycle all over again.
"I knew there was something important in that draw," Dory squints his eyes, thinking hard.
"I still just— I can't believe how fucked this is," Wesley speaks, eyes widening in disbelief.
"I wonder if they would have ever told me," I speak, more to myself than anyone else. "Or if they were just going to let my life go on, completely blind to the truth."
Ryan shrugs, fixing his backwards baseball cap. "Do you wish you didn't know?"
It was a question I had asked myself several times in the past 24 hours.
Would it have been better if I didn't know? What my life feel the tiniest bit less shitty if I went on believing that dad was my biological father?
"In a way, yes. But then I think, what if this is the first clue? What if this leads me to mum?"
"How?" Tea frowns, leaning her elbow against the table.
"I'm not sure yet," I answer honestly. "But I have this...feeling. I can't describe it but I know it means something."
