Page 62 of Bittersweet Revenge

“He just did, before Taylor’s summons.”

“How are you feeling about it?”

I looked at his face. The concern was genuine, opening the breach in my heart a bit more, letting more of him slip in. “I want to know what he wants, and I’ll have you and Archie at my back.”

He smiled and it was one of those smiles he used to give me after Port Harbor, but before I’d left him. It was a smile I had missed more than I thought I would and it made my heart jump in my chest.

Taylor chose this moment to walk in, holding a moss green leather-bound book in her arms.

“You called?” Archie sniggered.

She turned to me. “Best friend.” She then looked to Antoine, Caleb, and Archie, calling them respectively, “Daphne, Velma, Shaggy. Sorry to interrupt the investigations of Mystery Incorporated but I have news.”

Archie pointed at himself. “I’m Shaggy?!” he asked offended.

Taylor raised her eyebrow in silent confirmation.

“Oh, come on! I’m at least a Fred!” He turned to Caleb and Antoine. “Go on, tell her you’re not Daphne or Velma.”

Caleb shrugged. “Velma’s the brains. I’ll take it.”

Antoine winked at Taylor. “And Daphne is the pretty one. I’m good too.”

“Anyway,” I started, trying to bring back the conversation on a safer ground. “What did you want to say?”

“Ah, yes.” Taylor shook her head. “While you were all busy using your spying systems, super-computer, and your spy networks,” she snorted, “you forgot to look at the basics.”

“Care to explain?” Caleb asked, gesturing toward the table.

“You were so busy trying to find what was there instead of noticing what wasn’t.” She slammed the book on the table. “Your answers are here.”

“Okay…” Antoine trailed off, coming to stand beside her. “No offense, babe, but how can a yearbook from over twenty years ago provide us with an answer?”

She rolled her eyes. “I went to the library and looked for our Father’s yearbook, thinking that maybe there was something there. And you know what’s strange? Their final year at Brentwood and the three years after that were missing.”

I frowned, looking at Archie. “Okay, that’s strange.”

She snorted. “You think? Especially since you can’t check out yearbooks. So I went to my dad and asked him to see the yearbook of his last year at Brentwood as a memento for my last year here too.” She shrugged. “He gave it to me and here we go.”

She opened the book to where she’d stuck a red tag and turned it toward me.

It was my father holding a debate trophy. It was scary how much he and Archie looked alike, but he had this wickedness in his eyes that my brother was missing.

I cringed at that photo, at all of the surroundings and the people almost bowing to him as though he was a king.

Archie glowered, probably hating the reminder of how similar he was to our father. “I don’t–”

Taylor tapped her perfectly manicured fingernail to the left corner of the photo. “Look closer.”

We all leaned down at the same time. I gasped when I saw it, jerking straight. She was a child there, with crazy hair and braces, but it was unmistakable. Ms. White was looking up at my father adoringly.

I looked at Caleb and I was sure that I had the same look on my face as he did. I was impressed by my friend. She’d been the quiet one in the background. Yet, she was providing us with gold while Antoine and his thousands of dollars, hadn’t even gotten us anywhere close to a breakthrough.

“Who is she?” Antoine asked, turning the yearbook toward him to have a better look.

“It's our librarian, Ms. White.”

He nodded. “Ah, the fishy one. The woman without a past.”

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