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“If you need anything, call Ellen or me, okay?” Gigi looked at me as though she knew something about me that I didn’t. Despite that, the warmth in her eyes made my day. “We’re family now.”

“Same goes for you and Ellen. If you need anything, call or text.”

When they left, I got a call fromM?. I didn’t tell her about the change regarding her escape. Attikus was still working on it, and I didn’t want to worry her.

“How’s everything going?” she asked in a tone that made me smile.

“I’m dating him.”

“I’m so happy to hear that,” she said. “He’s a lucky man to be with my daughter. I can’t wait to meet him.”

“I think you’ll like him.”

“I know I will,” she said with so much conviction.

“How do you know?”

“Because I trust my daughter’s judgment.” She sighed. “And I trust God to guide us along the way.”

My mom wasn’t a social media person, so she probably didn’t know about my fake marriage. She would have asked if she’d heard. I didn’t want to make her worry by giving her unnecessary information.

We caught up on life. She told me about her friends, Sheila and Josephine, who were taking online classes. Mom wanted to get her chemistry degree just because. Sheila and Josephine were doing well in their business and accounting courses.

Before we hung up, I told her not to worry about anything and that everything was going well.

But I was worried about Attikus. How was he going to get her out successfully? If he got caught, his career would be over. I couldn’t live with that.

CHAPTER FORTY-THREE

ATTIKUS

After my meetingat the museum, I followed up on a clue my team had uncovered. Someone had tried to sell Joseph’s watch at a pawnshop.

Though the watch wasn’t a Rolex, it was a customized watch. I had a European watchmaker create it with Joseph’s name engraved on the back. The interesting thing about the watch was that the dial for the date was changed to something that intrigued me.

The man who’d found it said he’d spotted it near the Canal Walk, an area filled with retail businesses and office space along a section of the Providence River entering the city. I’d been that way several times.

Had Joseph wandered there? Had something happened to him, and he dropped the watch? The dial and the number were set to 020700. Had someone tried to change the number? Had the watch malfunctioned? Or was this a clue to something?

I strode along the Canal Walk.

Where are you, Joseph? Are you okay?

The recordings my team had uncovered around this area had shown nothing suspicious. I didn’t see Joseph or anyone who looked like him.

This was a busy section of the city, and those numbers could mean anything. They could be license plate numbers ora code into a building. I could go crazy trying to decipher this. The numbers could also mean nothing.

After wandering around for another hour, I headed home to work on my video game. The International Game Convention was coming up and ran from late July through to September. This would be the perfect opportunity for my friends and me to showcase the finished WaterFyre Rising. This was our debut to the world.

Two days ago, an idea came to me on how to improve Level Seven. That inspiration was what I’d been waiting for. The main framework and characters were all set. I just needed to fill in the details—the easy and fun stuff. The game was so close to being finished.

I also included the names of those who had hurt my friends and me in the game. They became villains that players wanted to kill. I wanted my game to declare the truth of how corrupt this world was. But I also wanted to show hope.

Vanessa’s face popped into my mind. She was the hope that contrasted the dark world I’d lived in for too long. Working on the game would take my mind off Joseph. I didn’t want to think that he was dead.

When I got home, Vanessa had just showered and looked happy.

“Guess who came to visit me at the gallery today?”