Deception Read Online Free Page A

guess they worry you’ll order out pizza … or crack.
    I dialed, then paused as if listening to a ring, then said, “Mom! It’s me. No, things are fine. How’s the beach? What? No, that’s Max, you know I don’t like paragliding.” How come my mother preferred Max even during imaginary conversations? “Listen, I lost the information — when are you getting back exactly? Tomorrow night? That’s great, because …” I covered the mouthpiece and whispered to the cadaver. “I don’t have to tell her about all this, do I? I’m gonna be in so much trouble.”
    “Hand me the phone,” Cadaver said.
    “That’s okay, I’ll tell her,” I said. “Mom, don’t panic — ”
    Cadaver plucked the phone from my hand. And listened to “The customer you are dialing is out of the service area.”
    “I guess she went through a tunnel,” I said.
    He didn’t bother arguing. “Your first option is to stay in the halfway house until your parents are located.”
    “No way. And those other kids shouldn’t have to stay there, either. Don’t you have better options for them?”
    “Yes, there’s the street,” he said.
    “Well, I don’t think that’s a better … oh.” Irony from the Cadaver.
    “Your second option is to be placed with a foster family.”
    “My parents are coming back.” I began to panic. “Why can’t you understand that?”
    Cadaver shuffled papers on his desk. “You’re in luck. The Belcher family is available. They specialize in children with behavioral problems.”
    Behavioral problems? What exactly was wrong with my behavior? It’s not like I set fire to the halfway house. “Is this about the fake call to my mom?”
    “If you are unaware of what — ” He stopped when the phone on his desk rang. He lifted the receiver and listened a moment. “For Miss Vaile? I find that hard to believe. Paperwork? Well. Send him in.” He hung up and told me, “There’s someone here for you. He claims he’s your legal guardian.”
    Dad! They came back for me! Except no, Cadaver would’ve said my father was here, not my “guardian.”
    Oh, maybe it was Max — he would pretend he was my guardian. Unless he really was my guardian, because Mom and Dad were … I swallowed hard, fighting back tears, and turned as the door opened.
    It wasn’t Max. It was Bennett.
    “Hello, Emma,” he said. “I — are you crying?”
    “No.” I wiped at my eyes. “Just the last twenty-four hours … they haven’t been great.”
    “I’ll see what I can do to make things better,” Bennett said.
    “My hero.” I would’ve fallen in love with him then and there.
    Except I already had.
    I met Bennett two years ago, when he came home with Max on spring break. He was my picture ideal of what a Harvard freshman should look like: half preppy, half bohemian in faded polos and ripped khakis. His dark wavy hair fell perfectly across his brow, and every time he looked at me he seemed to be smiling. Max, on the other hand, had taken to brown plaid shirts and stovepipe corduroys — a look that suited no one.
    Meeting Bennett was like meeting destiny. When he’d appeared behind Max, something had clicked. I couldn’t look away. I just knew . Maybe we weren’t meant to be together right then, but one day our lives would join.
    He only stayed a week, yet my insides resonated every time he entered the room, like the right chord on a piano. So in a way his sudden reappearance simply felt right, after two years of fantasies. Of course, in my dreams Bennett wasn’t saving me from a foster family, but I wasn’t the type of girl to turn down a knight in J.Crew armor.
    Except he wasn’t my guardian. He was just a friend of my brother’s. He wasn’t even distant family. Guardian angel maybe, with a tilted halo, not looking quite as innocent as he used to.
    “I’ll need to examine your papers,” Cadaver told him.
    “Of course.” Bennett handed them over and flashed me a look. The smile was still there, and so was his