The Fake Sister’s Lies Couldn’t Silence Me Chapter 05
Mom’s legs gave out. She dropped to her knees.
Brennan snatched the map from the officer.
“What do you mean, fifty feet down?”
“She fell. She wasn’t buried alive.”
The officer looked at him.
“The mine shaft flooded two days ago.”
“Part of the structure collapsed.”
“You need to prepare yourselves.”
Brennan’s hand stopped moving.
Sloane backed away until she hit the couch, her voice trembling.
“She has so many friends. Maybe someone already found her.”
Mr. Harlan wheeled on her.
“Are you kidding me?”
“You pinned that tag to her backpack.”
“And when she didn’t show up, you told the teacher she caught a ride home.”
Sloane’s face crumpled.
“Tessa said she wanted to be alone.”
“Isn’t that the whole point? Getting over her social thing?”
“I thought she was faking it again.”
Mom slapped her.
“She’s your sister!”
Sloane held her cheek, frozen.
It was the first time Mom had ever hit her.
Brennan moved in front of Sloane without thinking.
He opened his mouth to defend her, but nothing came out.
My last voicemail was still echoing from his phone.
[Brennan, I got over it. The socializing thing.]
[I won’t bother anyone anymore.]
The rescue team reached the site. Muddy water had sealed off most of the mine’s entrance.
I was still half-conscious.
One percent battery.
The screen flickered back on.
The seventy-two-hour blackout was officially over.
I tried to call Mom.
This time, the call wasn’t blocked.
My finger brushed the call button just as the screen went black.
I could see my face in the dead screen. And for the first time, I didn’t want to call anyone.
Every time a family sent me back, I’d chase the car.
Running after them, I’d ask myself what I did wrong.
Did I talk too much?
Did I eat too fast?
Should I not have remembered their birthdays?
This time, I didn’t have to guess.
They made it clear.
I was too much.
I needed too much.
Everyone breathed easier when I shut up.
A sound above me. Muffled, distant.
Someone was calling my name.
“Tessa!”
“If you can hear us, make a noise!”
I found a loose rock next to my hand and struck it against the boulder.
Crack.
The voices above erupted.
“We got something!”
“She’s down there!”
I hit the wall again.
Mr. Harlan’s voice broke through the rest.
“Tessa, it’s Mr. Harlan! We’re coming to get you!”
I opened my mouth.
Nothing came out.
The rescue crew dug for forty agonizing minutes before they could shift the collapsed debris.
Light flooded in. I raised a hand against it.
Someone grabbed my wrist.
“Don’t close your eyes.”
“We’re getting you out.”
They loaded me onto a stretcher. Mom was the first one to push through the paramedics.
“Tessa, I’m here.”
“Open your eyes. Look at me.”
Brennan pushed in next to her.
His voice cracked.
“Tessa, you never shut up, remember?”
“So say something.”
I looked at them for a long time.
It’s not that nobody could find me.
It’s that nobody wanted to.
My lips barely moved.
“So… now you want to talk?”
Mom let out a choked sob.
I didn’t have the strength to hear the rest.
Later, floating somewhere between sleep and consciousness, I heard voices arguing in my hospital,
room.
Sloane was crying.
“I just grabbed the wrong tag.
“I didn’t mean to hurt her.”
The officer’s voice was flat.
“We’ll let the security footage decide if it was an accident.”
“There’s a camera right outside the room where the tags were kept.”
The room went quiet.
A few seconds later, I heard Sloane’s breath hitch.
