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Chapter 1

Odessa Seif desperately needed two things.

A shower, because she was grimy as hell after stocking shelves at the grocery store.

And a phone call, because she always called her little brother by 7pm sharp.

She picked up the pace of her steps as the group home came into view. Lights in the curtained windows told her the other teens in the group home, along with the Martins, their main supervisors who also owned the property, were likely all home. She didn’t feel up to interacting with any of them. Maybe she could sneak into the shower without getting noticed.

By Dessa’s calculations, her recent extra shifts at the grocery store would allow her to save enough money in less than three months. Hope bubbled inside her in a way she hadn’t felt since before this whole sickness mess started, and even since before the car accident that had killed her parents four years ago.

Enough money to finally make good on all her careful plans.

Enough money to move out and get her own place.

Enough money to take her brother back from the foster parents who intended to adopt him.

Her well-worn ballet flats landed on the first porch step when she heard a strangled animal cry. Dessa looked around, searching for the source of the noise.

The cry sounded again and Dessa’s eyes snapped to a flowering bush at the corner of the house. She hesitated, just for a moment, as she imagined how good the hot water would feel as it cleared away all the grime and stress of stocking shelves as fast as people emptied those same shelves. People were going a little crazy over some new disease spreading around even though to Dessa it only sounded like a bad flu. Not that she’d paid much attention. All her time and energy was spent on pursuing guardianship of her little brother before she lost him forever.

The plaintive call of an animal in distress broke her hesitation. Dessa sighed and stepped into the grass. It was a late summer evening and the sprinklers had made the grass damp and soft. Crouching in front of the bush, Dessa shifted her backpack to one side, spread the dark green leaves apart, and peered into the shadows. Smelling the sweet tang of grass and cloying perfume of the flowers, movement finally caught her eye. A gray cat. Stuck. Wedged somehow in between the bush and the house.

She prayed the stupid cat wouldn’t bite or scratch her. What if the cat had rabies? She didn’t think the Martins would appreciate taking her to the doctor. That wasn’t to say the Martins were bad people. Only that they had really strict rules and didn’t like surprises. Dessa would normally call herself a rule follower, but only if the rules made sense, and some of the Martins’ rules didn’t. But Dessa had no plans to ruin things. She only needed to keep it together for three more months and then she’d be eighteen with enough money to get out for good.

Sighing one more time, Dessa grabbed the cat by its scruff. “Don’t you bite me now. I’m only trying to help.”

The cat wailed from the mistreatment. As soon as it was free of the bush, Dessa released it, expecting it to dart off. Instead, the cat surprised Dessa by crouching, tense, for several seconds, and then relaxing. It was a scrawny thing, gray, dusty, and musty smelling. Thin enough that its ribs stuck out a bit. The cat stretched on all four legs, arching its back, and then rubbed against Dessa and purred.

Dessa laughed at the cat’s change of heart. It was clearly begging for food, but the Martins were real strict about food. They kind of had to be with six teenage appetites in the house. Before she realized she even decided, Dessa rose to her feet, snuck around the house into the backyard, and entered the kitchen door.

She headed for the pantry cabinet the Martins said the teenagers were never allowed to get into. It was one of the rules.

But her last glimpse inside that cabinet had showed tuna cans. She figured the scrawny cat needed the tuna a lot more than the Martins did.

No matter what the house rules said.

Listening for footsteps from deeper inside the house, she worked fast. In less than a minute, she was back outside, but waited to open the tuna can in case the cat had left. She could slip the can back into the cabinet and it would be like she had never broken the rule at all.

Not realizing she held her breath, Dessa headed to the front yard and started breathing again when she saw the cat making itself at home by rolling around in the grass.

While crooning, Dessa approached. The gray cat froze until she popped open the tuna can, then it bounded over, sticking its head into the can and slurping up the juice before Dessa even had a chance to put the can on the grass.

“I guess you’re a little hungry.”

The cat slurped in reply. The tuna was stinky and made Dessa wrinkle her nose even as watching the cat relish its meal made her smile. Still, she figured it was time to wrap all this up. She’d gotten lucky no one had caught her breaking the rules.

Standing up, she stretched, the place where her backpack rested on her clothes feeling sticky. She imagined again how the hot water would wash off all her grime. As soon as she cleaned up, she would make the phone call she owed her little brother.

“Odessa Seif, what exactly is going on out here?”

Dessa’s insides froze. She looked over her shoulder and saw Megan Martin at the open front door, her expression serious. Dessa looked back down at the grass and realized the tuna can and cat were still very much in view.

“I…”

Megan Martin held up a hand. “Don’t.”

Dessa’s stomach sank.

Megan was a plump woman, but that plumpness did not soften her sternness. Her dark hair was cropped in an A-line and she wore smart-looking slacks with a flowery blouse. She treated the group home like a business and dressed for the job even though she pretty much lived here. “Is that tuna from my kitchen?”

Dessa didn’t even consider lying because the truth was obvious. “Yes.” And anyway she wasn’t a liar. She worked hard and she followed the rules that made sense. Megan wasn’t a bad person, she was just sometimes so strict about how the world should work she couldn’t see it didn’t always match with how the world actually worked. “I fed it. You can see it’s a starving cat.”

“You stole from me. My kitchen. My food. That’s what I see.”

Dessa opened her mouth to argue, but Megan kept going.

“You missed your last two therapy sessions.”

“I was able to get extra shifts at the store. I needed the money.”

“You need your case worker to approve your Readiness Assessment for your SILP if you want to move out.”

“I know what I need. I need to get my brother back!” Dessa bit her lip. She needed to rein it in.

Megan sighed. “You’re supposed to show them you’re ready to be an adult. How are missing therapy sessions and breaking house rules showing that? Odessa, you want to grow up so badly, but you’re not ready. This shows it.” Megan motioned to the cat and the tuna can. “You won’t be able to move out of here and you definitely won’t be given guardianship of your brother if you keep breaking the rules.”

Dessa locked up all her feelings and told herself not to argue anymore. “I need to shower.” She moved as if to brush past.

Megan narrowed her eyes and held her ground, blocking the way.

Dessa held her voice steady. It would only make things worse if she let her irritation show. “I’ve been around a whole bunch of sick people working my ass off all day today. You might want me to get out of these clothes and get clean before I pass something I’ve caught along to you all.”

Megan’s eyes widened, but she moved out of the way.

Dessa slipped into the cool shadows of the house, tense, but relieved the confrontation was over. Heading for the rooms that belonged to the girls’ side, she tried to push away thoughts about what consequences Megan and Mark would think up to punish her for stealing a stupid can of tuna for a stupid starving cat. She was sure it would involve lost privileges and more chores for at least a month.

Whatever. She planned to be out in three.

Just two girls, Dessa, and this girl, Tiana, stayed in the house right now, but the boys’ side held four teenagers. Dessa knew she was lucky not to share a room with someone else. That had not been the case in previous group homes.

At the moment, Tiana was nowhere to be seen. Thankful for that gift, Dessa made it inside her room, tossed her phone on the desk, dumped her backpack on the floor, stripped off her grimy clothes—careful to put them in the hamper just as Megan liked—and headed for the shower. All she needed was a hot shower and then to make the call to her little brother. Everything else would have to wait and take care of itself.

The hot water felt as good as she imagined. It cleaned off the grime and panic of the grocery store from both her body and her mind. Her muscles relaxed and her self-control reset. As she towel-dried her hair and dressed in comfy pajamas, which for her was a long T-shirt and leggings, she constructed an apology and a special promise that she would buy Megan two cans of tuna to replace the one she had ‘stolen.’

Glancing at the wall clock, she hurried to finish dressing. She promised to call her little brother by 7pm. It was already 6:55pm. Megan’s apology would have to wait. Right now she needed to keep her promise to her brother, hear his voice, make sure he was okay, and tell him that according to her plan, they’d be back together as a family in less than three months.

Throwing the towel in the hamper, she looked around her room. Where had she tossed her phone? She swore she’d set it on the desk. Nothing. She scanned the dresser and bed. Still no sign of her phone. Thinking maybe it had fallen onto the floor, she went to her knees on the beige carpet. It was musty down here since the vacuum never quite reached it. Her nose tickled into a sneeze.

Feeling around, searching to the wall, Dessa sighed in frustration.

No phone.

“Looking for something?”

For the second time in an hour, Dessa’s insides froze.

She glanced over her shoulder. Tiana stood in the open doorway. Her long, jet black hair shined far more than anyone’s hair deserved. Her face was narrow and had a porcelain quality to her Asian features that made Dessa jealous. Tiana was pretty without even trying. But for all that, Tiana was easy to live with because they mostly avoided each other.

“Nothing,” Dessa said. “I thought I dropped something.”

“Well, if you’re looking for your phone, I already took it to Megan and Mark.” Tiana flipped her hair over her shoulder and left.

Dessa sat there, stunned, allowing anger to bloom in her chest for the first time that day.

The panicked shoppers stealing cans of soup right out of her hands hadn’t done it. The long walk home when stupid drivers almost hit her twice didn’t either. Even Megan’s assumption that Dessa stealing a can of tuna showed her true colors as an irresponsible teenager hadn’t managed it.

But the clock showed 6:58pm.

Now she was about to break a promise to her brother.

The Martins had taken her phone. The phone she had bought with her own money to call her little brother every day at the same time and tell him that she was still here. To remind him that she hadn’t given up on him. To remind him that they would be a family again soon.

Dessa stood up, raking her fingers through damp hair, and stormed out of the room. Her chance to keep her promise was vanishing by the second.

But she was going to get her damn phone back in time.