Home Entertainment Game Technology Advertisement Part 2: For eight years, my parents made me leave the house every time my brother brought his fiance over; Mom said, “She comes from a good family, don’t embarrass us”; Dad added, “Just disappear for the weekend”; I did; then one weekend, I never came back; it took them four years to find out where I went.

IF THEY USE STACEY'S DEATH TO TAKE THIS LAND, OPEN IMMEDIATELY.

Mara looked at me.

“I've been waiting four years for proof you were alive.”

My heart pounded.

“You could have searched.”

“I did.”

“I found an old employer record.”

“Then nothing after you changed your number and opened the nursery through an LLC.”

I had done that deliberately.

“Why didn't you go to my parents?”

“Because your grandmother specifically told me not to.”

For once—

someone had honored a boundary.

Mara slid the envelope toward me.

“Stacey.”

“Yes?”

“I think this is about to become a criminal matter.”

I stared at my grandmother's handwriting.

Then at my own forged death.

“Good.”

I said.

“Because I'm tired of being the only person who has had to disappear.”
CHAPTER 4 — MY GRANDMOTHER’S AFFIDAVIT SAID, “MY GRANDDAUGHTER IS ALIVE. HER PARENTS KNOW IT.”

Grandma's sealed declaration was fourteen pages.

Typed.

Signed.

Notarized by someone with no connection to my family.