"No. Because of the day you torched my truck."
"Wait, what does that have to do with Willow?"
Brody's expression turned serious as he eyed the road ahead. "The thing is, she was supposed to be in it."
I tensed. "What?"
"On the day it happened," he said, "I was there picking her up from the lady who watched her when we couldn’t." With a glance in my direction, he added, "That's where my truck was parked – in front of that lady's house."
I shook my head. "But wait, I thought you were parked there to mow the lawn."
"I was," Brody said. "I was mowing for the lady who watched her. The lawncare – it was how we paid for the service."
"So, you exchanged lawn care for babysitting?"
"Lawncareandhandy work," he said. "I did the lawn. My brothers did the rest. But as far as mowing, I'd pull up, cut the grass, and then load up Willow. But onthatday, I was running maybe five, ten minutes late."
I tried to picture it. "Oh?"
"Yeah," he said. "And around the time you torched the truck, I wassupposedto be loading Willow into the car seat." He shook his head. "Orrunning back into the house because I forgot her favorite stuffed animal or something."
As his words hit home, I felt the color drain from my face. "So she could've been inside the truck?" I sucked in a breath. "Alone?"
As I said it, Waverly's accusation came flooding back."You almost killed his sister."
I turned sideways to stare at Brody. "But on the day it happened, why didn't you tell me? Why didn't you tellanyone?"
"Because it wasn't as bad as itcould'vebeen." He frowned. "And,because we didn't want her taken away."
I was still reeling. "What do you mean?"
"After my parents took off – first my dad, and then my mom – we were trying hard to fly under the radar, pretending that mom was still around so Willow wouldn't get put into foster care."
As I listened, my heart went out to him. It went out toallof them – Brody, Chase, Willow, and even Mason. I murmured, "Sothat'swhy they hate me."
Brody nodded. "Andwhy we never said anything – not to you or to the police."
Thinking out loud, I said, "So you figured that if it looked like a freak accident, they'd just let it go?"
"Yeah. Which they did. A good thing, too, because I sure as hell didn't want them coming to our house, asking for mom or whoever."
"But what about Mason?" I asked. "He was an adult, right?"
"Oh yeah," Brody said with a rueful laugh. "He was an adult at ten."
In my mind, I could totally see it, and it nearly broke my heart.
"The thing is," Brody continued, "by that time, Mason had been the dad for a while."
"You mean to Willow?"
"Herandto the rest of us," he said, "whenever we'd let him, which inmycase, was pretty much never."
I'd never liked Mason. Even on the show, he'd struck me as a total hard-ass who hated anyone not named Blastoviak. But I'd be lying if I didn't admit that it would be nice – really nice – to have a sibling with that kind of loyalty.
And now, I didn't know whether to pity them, or be totally jealous.The Blastoviaks really did stick together.
This reminded me of something I'd meant to ask earlier. "Willow's last name," I said, "why is it Taylor, and not Blastoviak?"
