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The day dragged on As I walked home after school, I pulled Kraven’s note out of ain I wanted to be confident and strong, but just reading about how bad Bishop was getting et hurt--but now I didn’t want Natalie to get hurt, either

I was stuck in the middle

Both Bishop and Natalie had told me different sides of the same story All I had froh they weren’t daggers, were still dangerous if they turned out to be untrue Both had their reasons for not being co important pieces of this puzzle out so I’d continue to help hirays Bishop told me about didn’t even exist--it was like the monster in the closet Once you opened the door and shone a light into the darkness, you realized that there was nothing there in the first place except for your own fear of the unknown

Seeing Bishop again would have to wait until Ithat Natalie had ht now I just hoped she’d be there again tonight

Without putting on quite asthe heels for flats, I got ready to leave the house at seven-thirty My lass of white wine in front of her

"Hey" I grabbed e of the chair where I’d left it earlier "Didn’t hear you get hoht, rather than up in her usual perfect French twist It was nicer like this, ina lot lately, haven’t I?" she said before taking a sip frolass

That put itthat she’d essentially abandoned er button "You could say that"

She relasses and placed the her temples She looked tired "Honey, sit down I want to talk to you"

Between her serious tone and that extralarge glass of wine, I started to worry We hter proble her so disturbed by whatever it was she wanted to discuss with e to reach across the table and squeeze her hand

Her knuckles hite as she took another sip of her wine Her slightly bloodshot eyes ht to know this"

"Knohat?"

"I’d always planned to tell you the truth, but I put it off and put it off I figured I’d wait till you turned eighteen, then you could do whatever you liked with the information"