17. Margo
Chapter 17
Margo
“ T his is foolish,” Riley says for the tenth time.
I roll my eyes. “Caleb’s going to regret telling me about this place.”
When we discovered the mermaid figurine—and, more importantly, that it was transmitting a video feed—Caleb brought it to his old friend, Matt.
That friend did some tech-whiz shit and led him to this place.
Lucky’s Diner.
Caleb mentioned… well, he mentioned that there was a twenty-four-hour diner that was a hotspot. It took some narrowing down, but surprise, surprise —this place is the only one in Beacon. Only one in Hillshire County, actually.
Riley kills the engine, and we sit in silence. “It looks shitty.”
The diner across the street is… not someplace I would expect Caleb and Matt to go. The sign’s lights flicker on, even though it’s the middle of the afternoon.
Riley graciously decided to cut class in order to accompany me on this adventure, but from the expression on her face, she’s regretting it.
“Lucky’s Diner,” I read. “I just… expected something fancier.”
“Who do you think is in there?” she asks. “Are we going in as like, ‘Oh, just coming in for a meal, don’t pay us any mind!’”
I laugh. “You’d make a horrible spy.”
She flips her hair. I have a flashback to Amelie and Savannah doing similar moves, but I shove it out of my head.
“You know what’s horrible?” she asks. “That you’re graduating in a semester and I’m going to be stuck there for another year.”
“Yeah, that does suck. But I’ll probably still be around. Maybe I’ll get a job as the school janitor’s assistant. Then you’ll still see me every day.”
She snorts. “You’re ridiculous. You’re going to college, remember?”
I shrug. If I wanted to go, I’d have to apply.
And then get accepted.
And then come up with the money for tuition.
“Robert comes home tomorrow,” I say. “Today’s my last day to figure this out.”
She groans. “Okay, fine. Let’s go into Lucky’s Diner —which, for the record, looks pretty damn unlucky.”
We’re the only car front and center in the parking lot. There are a few parked in the back corner, but those are probably employees. In the few minutes we’ve sat here, no one has come in or out.
“Okay. Yeah.” I unbuckle and climb out.
Riley follows suit, and together, we walk toward the diner.
The back of my neck prickles, and I pause, glancing behind me.
“Catch up, tomato,” Riley calls.
I wrinkle my nose, scanning the area.
Nothing except for a deserted lot.
“‘Catch up, tomato?’”
“Like ketchup?” She elbows me. “Dad used to say that to me all the time.”
I shake my head. “Absurd.”
“Gladly so.”
I let her go through the door ahead of me, hesitating before I enter. The niggling feeling of someone watching me hasn’t gone away. I look behind me one last time.
The paranoia is really getting to me, but I’m glad I don’t see anyone. I don’t need any dark figures lurking around corners, waiting for me to misstep.
“Welcome to Lucky’s,” the hostess says.
That voice.
I slowly turn back around, pushing past Riley.
Lydia Asher?
Caleb’s mom’s mouth drops open. “Margo?”
First thought? Horror.
Second thought? Nausea.
I guess those two kind of go hand in hand. And if we weren’t here for answers, well, I’d be out the door before she could say another word. Instead of running, I lock my muscles and really try to see her.
Because what happened to her after her husband died?
Riley squints at me, then her. She’d be unfamiliar with Lydia Asher, having moved here after the trial and town-wide publicity.
“You know Margo?” she asks the older woman.
“It’s been a while.” Lydia’s voice is faint.
I can’t quite decide on her tone. It could be soft—it certainly sounds it. But there are blades that are so sharp, they slice without pain. Not until after. And maybe that’s her—honed too sharp by time and anger.
“Not long enough,” I find myself saying.
“Then why are you here?”
“Hold on,” Riley interrupts. “Huh?”
“Caleb’s mom. Lydia Asher.” I finally tear my eyes away from her and look around. The place is deserted. “Why do you work here?”
“Excellent food.” She picks up two menus from the host stand. “I assume you ladies are here to eat?”
“No—”
“Yes.” Riley smiles sweetly. “Can we have that corner booth?”
Lydia watches her for a beat, then nods. “Of course.”
She leads us down the aisle. It’s a long and narrow diner, with a bar and bolted-in stools on one side, and a row of booths against the windows. The booths wrap around and end at the kitchen doors. Behind the bar, there’s a window into the kitchen. It seems deserted back there, too.
“Busy day?” I run my hand over the counter.
I’ve never seen a restaurant so quiet.
“It picks up around brunch,” she murmurs. “Here you are. Water?”
“Yes, thanks.” Riley takes a seat.
Lydia hesitates next to me. “Why are you really here, Margo?”
I shrug. “Just hungry.”
Is Lydia—or one of the other Ashers—my stalker? We’ve been thinking that it was someone around my age. They knew things from parties and school. There’s no way Lydia would have been able to get that information.
But this is just too high of a coincidence.
“All the way in Beacon?” she questions.
I don’t like the way she’s watching us. She thinks we’re up to something. We are up to something, but I don’t like that she’s automatically suspicious.
“We were in the neighborhood. And I guess we were just feeling… lucky.”
She narrows her eyes. “All right.”
I sit across from Riley once she goes.
“What are we doing?” I lean across the table. “Are you crazy?”
“She’s the one who left him with his uncle, right?” Riley tracks Lydia’s movements across the diner.
She hasn’t forgotten our rescue attempt from Caleb’s uncle’s house. Neither have I. To know she willingly left her son—her ten-year-old son—with the monster is more than I can stomach.
Something crashes, and we both jump.
I twist around and catch a flash of dark hair through the window into the kitchen.
When Lydia doesn’t reappear, I glance at Riley. “Should we check on her?”
“Honestly, I’m not sure what we’re even doing here. I was hoping she’d give us some clue. So we should stay longer, right? Just eavesdrop.”
Right. That’s what we do.
Meanwhile, Lydia’s probably on the phone with the real Unknown, and they’re going to stage another attack. Maybe they’d hurt Riley this time.
My skin is too tight.
There’s another crash, and then the sound of voices.
“This is weird.” My skin crawls. “I have a bad feeling about this…”
Riley leans toward me. “You said your dad didn’t kill her husband. What if she had something to do with it?”
“Then… we’re alone with a dangerous woman.”
“No!” Lydia yells from the back room.
We both shoot to our feet, grabbing our stuff.
Riley yanks me toward the entrance. “Move, Margo. Come on.”
The kitchen door flies open, and my mouth drops.
I stop.
Stop breathing.
Stop thinking.
Because my mother is finally in front of me.
It’s almost weird how she looks exactly the same and completely different at the same time. She glares at me—familiar. Her hair is pulled back, mostly covered by a black bandana—familiar. Chef’s coat— familiar . Wrinkles across her tanned face—new. Thin. Angry.
I shudder.
Riley grabs my arm and hauls me toward the door. Maybe she can see the family resemblance, or maybe she’s just freaked out about this woman’s sudden appearance.
Mom opens her mouth, but my shoulder hits the doorframe.
It knocks some sense into me.
Spinning around, I finally go with Riley. My feet move fast, almost outrunning my friend. We sprint to her car and fall into it.
“Go, go, go.” I stare at the entrance.
Mom bursts out just as Riley turns onto the street, and we fly past her.
Around the corner.
Shit .
“Who the hell was that?” Riley yells.
I laugh. I can’t help it.
Three fucking years, and I stumble upon her by accident. What kind of insane irony is that? Whoever is controlling my fate must think themselves a comedian.
“My mother,” I say through my giggles. But then the laughter falls away. “Caleb must’ve known she was there.”
When we’re far enough away, Riley pulls onto the shoulder of the road. It’s one of the back ways to get between Beacon and Rose Hill, and it’s deserted.
“That was your mom?” She cranks the heat again.
Now that I’m sitting still, my hands tremble. “I’m so sick of surprises.”
She sighs. “I thought we were going to find Unknown. You know? Like in Pretty Little Liars .”
“I never saw that show.” I shake my head. “Were they threatened by a mysterious texter, too?”
She chuckles. “Yeah, they were.”
“Huh.”
She types on her phone. “I’m going to make a list. We’ve got to narrow this down.” She taps her chin. “Okay, so… Unknown texted you before you started school. They had to have your number somehow. Before anyone else got it.”
I sigh. “It was a new number, too. My social worker got it for me.”
“The social worker who lied about why your dad went to prison?”
Yikes. “That’s the one.”
“They also had to see Ian dragging you off at school,” Riley points out. More typing. “That was in the middle of the school day, and kind of a random day to be there. It would’ve had to be pure coincidence.”
I put my hand over my stomach, getting phantom pains just from thinking about what Ian did.
“Unknown said that was the only nice thing they would do for me.” I sigh. “Amelie and Savannah were involved in that one. Amelie said Sav sent it to her, and when she didn’t care, she sent it on to Caleb.”
“Confusing.” Riley frowns. “We kind of ruled them out, right? I mean… not the two of them together. That was a working theory at one point. And… there was the party. With the video.”
“Ugh.”
“What else?”
“They seemed to have insider knowledge. But… not inner circle stuff.”
Riley grins. “You’ve ruled me out, then? Because I’m totally inner circle.”
“Unless you have a secret phone I don’t know about…” I quirk my lips.
Her smile drops. “I didn’t even think of that. It could be literally anyone who picked up a disposable phone at the store. Paid minutes in cash…”
“Yep.”
“So you haven’t seen your mom since…?”
“She’d stop by to check on me in foster care, but it was more about money than anything else. Quick visits on the sidewalk. That finally stopped when I was fourteen.”
Riley frowns.
“Please don’t pity me,” I beg. “She’s a terrible mom, asking her teenage daughter for money. She gave me a present once, when I was… twelve, maybe? A little stuffed bunny for Easter.”
“That was nice,” she says.
“Yeah, nice. One of the other foster kids at the time stole it before I’d had a chance…” I sigh. “I just wanted something to hold on to that let me know she was thinking of me, but even that got taken away.”
“Maybe that’s why she’s back.”
“To hug me?” I scoff. “Doubtful. Did you see the anger in her eyes? She always held a grudge for the secret I let slip.”
I fill Riley in about catching my mom and Caleb’s dad together. How Caleb told me he knew, begged me not to tell, and then we got caught leaving our hiding place. Mom said it was nothing, but…
That’s not quite accurate.
“So you went home and told your dad,” she finishes.
I lift one shoulder. “I think so.”
“You don’t remember that part?”
“Not yet. It’s coming back in pieces.”
She pulls back out onto the road, heading home. “You haven’t got any new texts, right?”
“Nope.” My phone buzzes, and I groan. “I jinxed it.”
Unknown
Secrets are coming out…