It didn’t make sense.
Unless… unless Harry didn’t know either, or he was being kept in the dark too.
I walked over to Arson and crouched down. “What’s in your backpack? Let me see.”
He hesitated for a moment, then obediently took it off.
I unzipped it. Inside, besides a few sketchbooks and a worn Ultraman toy, there was a white pill bottle.
It had no label—like some unregulated product.
“What’s this?”
“Grandma gave me smart pills,” he said softly. “Grandma said I have to take them every day, or I’ll get stupid and Mom won’t like me.”
Grandma?
Linda.
My mind went “buzz.”
A chill ran from my feet straight to the top of my head.
Why would Linda give Emily’s son unknown medicine?
Could it be…
I didn’t dare think any further.
I shoved the pill bottle into my pocket and looked at the boy in front of me. He was so much like Emily, yet carrying Harry’s shadow in his face. My feelings were a tangled mess.
“Tonight, you’ll stay here. And tomorrow, I’ll take you home.”
By “home,” I meant our home.
Arson was obedient to the point of breaking my heart.
When I told him to take a shower, he quietly walked into the bathroom by himself.
A long time passed and I didn’t hear water running. I went to check.