Chapter 6 - THE CAR
I showed Dad the message before the procession began. He went straight to the parking lot.
I wanted to follow, but the faculty marshal was already calling our row. Tessa squeezed my hand.
“Let him handle the car. You get your diploma.”
I walked into the auditorium with a smile that felt borrowed.
Halfway through the speeches, Dad texted me. The charm had been placed on the passenger seat of his car. The doors were unlocked because he’d left in a rush.
He’d also found something under the windshield wiper: a printed photograph of me entering the shipping store the previous afternoon.
I had never been there.
At first glance, the girl in the photo looked like me. She wore my green jacket and carried my canvas tote. But I’d been at work at the time. My manager had asked me to stay late, and I had clocked out at 6:14.
Dad sent me a closer crop. The girl’s face was turned away, but I recognized her shoes. Mia wore those red sneakers almost every day.
She had used my jacket, my bag, and my name.
When my name was called, I crossed the stage. The principal shook my hand and passed me the diploma cover.
I looked into the audience. Dad stood beside Tessa’s mother, clapping so hard I could hear him over the crowd.
For one moment, I let myself be happy.
After the ceremony, he hugged me and pressed the charm into my palm.
“I’m sorry I didn’t see what was happening,” he said.
“You see it now.”
He nodded. “And I’m going to keep looking.”
His phone rang before we reached the car. It was the shipping store.
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The clerk had reviewed the footage. She said the person who sent the envelope wasn’t Mia.
It was Denise.
