I Stopped Talking and They All Regretted It Chapter 07

I Stopped Talking and They All Regretted It Chapter 07

Charlotte stared at the footage, and her crying cut off.

She clearly hadn’t counted on a second camera outside the equipment room.

“Fine. I switched the card. But Thad no idea that trail would collapse. I only wanted to scare her a little.”

The officer asked, “Why’d you tell Coach Hayes she’d left early during the headcount?”

“I was scared of getting in trouble.”

“When the driver said someone was missing, why’d you say she’d caught a different van?”

Charlotte bit down on her lip.

“She knows so many people. I really did think she’d hitch a ride with somebody.”

“And when she texted you that she’d fallen into some old structure?”

Charlotte dropped her head.

After a long stretch, she finally forced it out.

“I thought she was acting.

Theodore suddenly spoke up.

“That’s on me. I’m the one who made her think that.”

Every head in the room turned toward him.

His throat worked.

“I’m the one who told everybody Emma would fake a disappearance for attention. I’m the one who grabbed Cooper’s phone so he couldn’t answer. Charlotte just believed what I told her.”

The officer’s brow creased.

“Did she switch the route card because you told her to as well?”

That question stopped Theodore cold.

Charlotte grabbed for his sleeve at once.

“Theodore. Get me out of this.”

“I can’t get kicked out of the program. My final interview for the Young Leaders Scholarship is right around

the corner.”

Theodore looked at her, then over at me on the bed.

This time, he didn’t rush to speak up for her.

I picked up the notepad and wrote down the times I still remembered

–

3:40 p.m. noticed the route card had been swapped.

4:07 p.m. fell into the old battery’s underground tunnel.

4:12 p.m.

4:16 p.m.

– first call to Theodore.

–

texted Charlotte.

6:20 p.m. – Cooper’s call got through.

Before I could say a word, Theodore cut the line.

The officer looked it over, then glanced up at me.

“You remember it this precisely?”

I nodded.

I’d always been good at remembering people, remembering events, remembering every offhand thing

anyone had ever said to me.

In the past, that talent had only ever gone toward making people like me.

This time, it finally got to speak up on my behalf.

The police took Charlotte in for further questioning.

Northridge suspended every one of her activities in the

program.

She’d made it to the door when she suddenly spun back around

“Happy now, Emma? Everyone’s on your side now. This family wasn’t like this before you ever showed up!”

Mom shot to her feet.

“Charlotte!”

I just picked up the thermos Cooper had brought and took a sip of hot soup.

She wasn’t wrong.

Before I’d come back, they really had been happy.

Nobody had to deal with a kid who’d been given up on for eleven straight years.

And nobody had to admit that every exhausting habit that kid carried had been left behind by being

sabandoned, over and over.

That night, a post went up online out of nowhere.

The headline read:

NEW CAMPER USED PRIVATE INFO TO MANIPULATE EVERYONE, STAGED HER OWN DISAPPEARANCE TO

FRAME A FELLOW CAMPER AFTER GETTING CAUGHT

The post came stuffed with photos of my friend notebook.

Names, birthdays, family details, allergy info, all photographed in sharp, ugly detail.

The poster claimed I’d approached every single person with an angle.

Claimed I’d switched the blue route card myself.

The footage only showed Charlotte taking the blue card out of the equipment room. It hadn’t caught who actually pinned it onto my backpack afterward.

The comments exploded fast.

[This isn’t being outgoing, this is straight-up stalker behavior.]

[She writes down other people’s family drama? Basically a walking surveillance camera.]

[Wait, did she stage this whole thing herself?]

Theodore burst into the room.

“That post wasn’t Charlotte.”

I looked up at him.

Under my stare for a few seconds, his voice kept dropping lower.

“Her phone’s already in police custody. Probably one of her friends trying to stick up for her.”

I typed out a line on my phone. [You came because you’re scared I’ll keep digging into her.]

He opened his mouth. “I just don’t want this blowing up any bigger than it already has.”

I nodded.

Got it.

Before, he wouldn’t let me speak, for Charlotte’s sake.

Now he was desperate for me to speak, still for Charlotte’s sake.