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Talia picked up her pace. As the basketball court came into view, two landscapers blew past in a golf cart, followed by an ambulance. Talia broke into a full jog and soon spotted a familiar figure in the distance. Was that... ? Ozzie?Oh, shit. Well, that probably explained the sirens.

Chapter Sixty

Ozzie

His oldest sister was not blessed with athletic prowess, which she demonstrated by running at him like a drunk, red-faced puppet. Ozzie was low-key worried she might need an ambulance, too.

“Where did you come from?” she asked, huffing and puffing and blowing the little pigs’ houses down.

“New York?” Ozzie said.

“Yes. Obviously.” Talia’s eyes darted toward the recreation pavilion, and it dawned on Ozzie that she’d already chalked the melee up tohim.

“I literally just got here,” Ozzie said before Talia had the chance to sneak in a comment. He couldn’t believe he’d traveled all this way, only to be blamed for something the moment he walked onto the premises. “I have no idea what’s going on,” he added. “That guy—” Ozzie gestured to a fireman blocking the door “—won’t let me in. I’m guessing it’s some sort of electrical fire?”

“Fire,” Talia repeated, scoffing. “Do you even smell smoke? Somebody’s clearly hurt. There’s an ambulance. Right.” She pointed. “There.”

Ozzie started to suggest that perhaps the fire was out, and the ambulance one of those “just in case” situations, when Ustenya came flying around the corner in a sports bra and a pair of bike shorts.Hottie with a body for real, Ozzie thought.Good for her.

“Surprise!” Ozzie said. “Guess who’s back!”

Their stepmother sprinted at them, screaming their names, using some new idiom about beasts in a gym.

“Ustenya,” Talia said, “why are you here? You were supposed to leave last night.”

“The beast in the gym! The beast in the gym!” Ustenya said. She hurled her body into Talia’s, burying her face in her chest. Meanwhile, Talia stood frozen, stiff-armed, seemingly unsure how to respond.

“Hey, U-ten,” Ozzie said, rubbing her back. “Slow down. Tell us what’s wrong. Whatever it is, we’ll deal with it—”

Ustenya glanced up. Trails of mascara tears streaked her cheeks. “No, Oscar. It won’t be okay.” She snuffled, and heaved, and when she finally got ahold of herself said, “Something has happened to your dad. Nothing will be okay ever again.”

Chapter Sixty-One

Gabby

We barreled down the back roads in Ozzie’s rental car, Talia gripping the wheel, her mouth in a tight, angry line. Nobody had any details about the incident other than the fact Dad and Spencer went to work out, saw “a beast in the gym,” and werebothhospitalized.

“I thought the gym was abandoned,” I said for the tenth or twelfth time. “We all saw it, remember? Tarps covered everything?”

Talia punched the gas, and I closed my eyes, my heart beating a million miles per hour. It’d been pounding since the sound of sirens woke me up and I checked my phone to find a thousand missed calls and texts. By the time I’d hauled ass to the recreation pavilion in bare feet, the ambulance was gone. None of the people still around had seen Dad, and his physical state remained unclear.

“One of you said it looked like it hadn’t been touched in years,” I added.

“But, like, you put a dinosaur in there and didn’t tell anyone?” Ozzie said, and at least one sibling was speaking to me.

“It showed up right before Dad’s party,” I said. “And we planned to deal with it in the morning. How was I supposed to know Spencer would convince Dad to work out for the first time since we arrived?”

And Ivan—poor Ivan. He felt like hell, but none of this was his fault. He’d guarded the pavilion’s entrance all night, but unfortunately Dad and Spencer went in through the back.

“When are you going to realize you don’t exist in a vacuum?” Talia said. She was furious but had acknowledged my existence, which was a step in the right direction. “What you do affects other people.”

“For real, Bags,” Ozzie said. “You done fucked up.” He was right, and watching him and Talia band together against me threw another hurt on top of the pile.

After driving the rest of the way in frantic silence, we staggered into the tan and brown and beige waiting room of the Gunn Hospital Critical Care Pavilion. They refused to update us, as per Ustenya’s request. All the nurse could say was Dad was stable and would be in surgery for another three to four hours.

Three to four hours?I flinched against this punch. What if Dad was permanently injured or died? I’d never be able to live with myself. As for Spencer, he strutted out not five minutes after we arrived, the only hint of a scuffle his slightly ripped T-shirt and the medium-sized bandage on his forearm.

“Anyone else get mauled by a dinosaur?” he said. “Check it out.” Spencer lifted his bandage to reveal a single red mark. It was neither particularly long nor especially deep. I scowled. Some guys had all the luck.