“You guys are up early,” she said blearily.
Her mother jumped off her stool and hurried over to her, hugging her close. “Well, we were trying to wait up for you last night—but you came home too late.”
Mac frowned. Her mom had texted asking where she was, and Mac had lied and said she was at her new friend Julie Redding’s house and would be home soon. Was she in trouble? Her heart sped up. Did they somehow know that they’d broken into Granger’s?
But then she looked at her dad. He was beaming brightly. Even Sierra looked kind of excited. Mac settled onto a bar stool at the counter. “What’s going on?”
“There’s a message on the voice mail,” Mrs. Wright said excitedly. “You got in!”
Mac blinked. “In?”
“Into Juilliard!” Mrs. Wright leaped across the room to the cordless phone console. “My friend Darlene called! She hears everything that goes on with Juilliard admissions, and . . .”
She pressed play. After a beep, a woman’s voice blared through the room. “Hey, Elise, it’s Darlene! So listen, it’s not official yet, but the judge was thrilled by Mackenzie’s performance,” she said excitedly. “Anticipate a letter in the next week! And tell your girl a big congratulations! She’s following in your footsteps and going to Juilliard!”
Mac screamed. She’d done it. She got in. It didn’t even bother her that her parents had found out first. It was the most amazing news she’d ever heard.
Her little sister inched forward, giving Mac a hug. “You’ll never believe the other news, too,” she said excitedly. “Tell her, Mom.”
Mrs. Wright beamed. “Well, Mrs. Coldwell called me last night. They have inside contacts as well, and it looks like Claire’s getting in, too!”
Mackenzie froze. A high-pitched wail rang in her ears. “Wait. What?”
“I know!” Her mother shook her head, marveling. “What are the odds? But you’re both going. Isn’t it exciting? You can room together!”
A sour taste filled Mackenzie’s mouth. All the excitement of a moment ago twisted inside her, changing shape until she didn’t know how she felt. Anger, disappointment, resentment, and anxiety tainted the brief sense of triumph she’d felt. All she’d wanted to do was beat Claire, once and for all.
And now, instead of getting even, she’d be stuck with her for four more years.
“This calls for a celebration!” Her mother bustled to the fridge and pulled out a chocolate cake decorated with musical notes in delicate white icing. Her father started pouring milk into wineglasses. Only Sierra sat with a knowing expression on her face, watching Mackenzie. She’d always seemed to suspect how Mackenzie really felt about her “best friend.”
“Well? Don’t you have anything to say?” asked her mother, handing her a plate.
“Yeah, Juilliard girl, how are you feeling?” her dad said.
Sierra lifted her glass. “Speech! Speech!”
Mackenzie stared around at her family, holding the slice of cake in her hands. The smell took her back in a sudden rush of memory to the night in Cupcake Kingdom when she and Blake had kissed. Tears burned in her eyes, but she blinked them away so no one could see.
“I’ve never been so happy,” she said.
Or so miserable.
CHAPTER THIRTY-FIVE
THAT MORNING, JULIE CAREFULLY PULLED on a dark blue dress and inspected herself in her full-length mirror. Behind her, Parker snickered. “That’s what you’re wearing to the police station? You look like one of the kids in Harry Potter.”
Julie frowned. She had been going for I’m-responsible-and-you-should-take-me-seriously, but now that she thought about it, the long blue dress did look a little too Hogwarts-chic. She pulled it over her head and changed into a gray-cardigan-and-dark-wash-jeans combo instead.
“Are you sure you don’t want to come?” she asked Parker as she put on her fake pearl studs. “It might be . . . I don’t know. Satisfying.”
“No thanks.” Parker shook her head emphatically. “As long as Elliot is out there, I don’t want to leave this house. Anyway, you guys don’t really need me, do you? Just to give the cops Nolan’s flash drive.”
“You’re right,” Julie said, then nervously shook out her hands. She just wanted this over with. She couldn’t wait till Granger was behind bars, and everything could go back to normal.
As she was selecting a pair of flats, she noticed that the email bubble on her laptop was flashing. She clicked on it, thinking it might be someone asking for a ride. But then she saw the name . . . and the subject. Her heart stopped in her chest.
From: Ashley Ferguson
To: Ashley Ferguson
Cc: Julie Redding
Subject: Julie Redding’s Dirty Little Secret
In the body of the email there was no text, just the link to an article, the one describing how Julie and her mom were evicted from their old house in Oakland. The one Parker had erased.