Tony
Everly didn’t come home.
Mrs. Byer had said that she was missing. She had used that exact word before she hung up: “Tony, Everly has gone missing.” She didn’t accuse me, didn’t insinuate, but I knew that she would. And soon everyone else would too. My heart started slamming against my rib cage. My pulse ratcheted up.
Mrs. Byer had called me from Everly’s phone, the phone she left behind.
Hope had left behind her phone too.
Maybe Everly was faking it too.
Pulling a Hope.
I stood there in my bedroom shaking.