Page 96 of The Two Last Moments

With any other woman before Lark, I wouldn’t have known what he meant. But Cam said before that he loved her. So I guess we do have something in common.

“I want everything that belongs to her,” I say.

“Fine. It’s yours.”

Cam takes me around the block to a parking lot. I’m watching for any sign that he’s trying to trick me or pull a fast one, but he just pops his trunk, grabs a cardboard box from inside, and lifts it up.

“This is everything.”

I take the box. A sweatshirt is folded on the top. “All right. But what else does Lark need to know? I want every confession you’ve been holding back. About her identity, her stepbrother. I don’t care how small.” It’s clear there’s something else. I can read the guilt all over his face.

He’s chewing his lower lip ragged. After another moment, he says, “Z came by once when Lark wasn’t home. This was maybe three months ago. Z said Lark was sneaking around and planning something dangerous. He said he wanted to protect her. She’d already told me enough about him that I was wary, but…he offered me money to find out where she’d been going. She’d been keeping secrets from him, too.”

“And you took the payoff?”

“It wasn’t about the money! I was worried about her. I started trying to figure out what she was up to, and Lark caught me following her. She was so angry. She stormed off. It was that night she came home with bruises, and we argued and broke up.”

“Do you think she went to confront Z about it? That’s where the bruises came from?”

“Maybe. I don’t know. But that’s the last that I saw her until you guys walked into the café.”

“Do you have her stepbrother’s address? Phone number? Anything we could possibly use to find him or identify him?”

“If I had anything on him, I would give it to you if it meant helping Lark. But I don’t.”

I glare at him until I’m convinced he’s telling the truth. “I don’t want you contacting Lark anymore. If she decides to call you, that’s her choice. But you’re done.”

“Would you at least tell her I’m sorry?”

“No.”

“Comeon, man. You got her. You don’t have to be a jerk about it, too.”

I tuck the box under my arm. “Fine. I’ll tell her you’re sorry. Because she deserves to hear it, not to make you feel better.”

He slinks back to the café.

* * *

I carrythe box to my car and set it in a rear bucket seat to sort through. I’m not trying to hide. If Z followed me here, I would love for him to show his face. That would mean he’s not in West Oaks with Lark.

I set aside the sweatshirt, as well as some other clothing and pieces of jewelry. There’s a single sneaker, probably forgotten by accident.

And then, the planner Cam mentioned to Lark on the phone. It’s for this calendar year. Did she leave it behind by accident? Did Cam purposefully keep it in his effort to spy on her? Impossible to say.

I flip through it carefully, noting Lark’s expressive handwriting. She wrote down her appointments and tasks, including several mentions ofthe clinic. That’s where she volunteered, the same place where Travis was a patient.

And there it is—Travis’s name and a phone number. She’s underlined it twice.

Right away, I take out my phone and dial the number. But it’s out of service.

Is it possible that what Z told her is true? She really meant to con Nina out of money with those emails about Travis? What did my uncle really have to do with the scheme?

The thing is, I wish I didn’t need to know. Not if it could hurt Lark. And maybe there’s an inkling of fear inside me, too. A worry that I’ll eventually learn something that makes me doubt her.What if…

But if my uncle is our only lead to finding Lark’s evil stepbrother, then I’ll have to follow it.

I study every page of the planner, hoping for something useful to pop out at me. Nothing does. Then I start at the beginning and try again. There has to be something.

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