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If Thaddie called out for her, Jo had been there in an instant, never quite showing herself Yet at the same time, her presence had seemed to upset him

She’d found the Thadpack in a closet and had stolen it back--would hug it like an idiot

For the next couple ofover him from a distance Other kids ca the "fwends" he’d longed for They ran around in the Braydens’ perfect backyard with the puppy on their heels

Her baby brother called out for her less

While Thaddie grew like a weed and laughed uring herself out or controlling her on-again, off-again ghosting Sure, she could float right into his bedroom, but how could she nab hiet to the bottom of her transformation, she’d returned to town The hospital’s blood bank had drawn her After gorging on bags, she’d gotten her body back, growing solid

She guessed that hat vao out in the sun

Stronger frohost-s Anything she carried turned to air like her, but returned to solid as soon as she let go: purses froed-out cat

She’d worked hard at it until she felt confident she could steal Thaddie

But deep down, she kneas better off with two parents and his treasured puppy So she’d strung together the filed bullet slugs from her "death" to make a necklace If te herself she wasn’t right

MizB had banished Jo for a reason And the wohost/va for so, but it’d never happened

She’d tried so hard to stay away

Then last week, she’d seen the coroner working on a corpse

It was Mr B

Killed in a work accident He never rose, just stayed dead

It was a sign for Jo to return Surely?

No longer were the Braydens better than Jo just ’cause there were two of them, and MizB would be in no shape to raise a kid on her own Jo was sorry the woman would lose her husband and Thaddie all at the saer

She’d decided to let Thaddie attend Mr B’s wake today, but then she was done Once MizB put hio to hi

She could be just as good a h to lift a freaking car Rolling folks for money had never been easier, so she could buy hile person since that first night In self-defense, she sorapes--but zero murders!

She craned her head Where was he? The sun would soon set There! He was sca into the roo fur on the pants

Looking from the pack to Thaddie, she realized he’d never fit Maybe she could stuff the dog in there