Page 314 of A University of Betrayal

I immediately looked at Julian. My gut feeling seemed to have been right, because he obviously avoided my gaze.

“You were in Alice’s room?” Miles reminded me of his presence.

Those had probably just been the best moments in his presence that I would ever experience. I had been able to forget him just like that.

“She used to live with my mother, long story...” Bayla just waved it off, and I let the story about the burglar sink in.

To be honest, it gave me the creeps that someone had broken into Julian’s neighbor’s house. Who knew who this burglar was. Orwhat...

“Do you guys think the burglar wanted to take a dead woman’s diary?” Julian asked in disbelief, leaning back in his chair.

“What if it was her murderer, and he wanted to cover his tracks?” Larissa finally blurted out. Even though it sounded logical for once, I was sure this girl had been watching too many true crime documentaries.

Bayla sighed. “I don’t really know… That was twenty years ago. Whynow?”

She sounded overwhelmed. If I were her, I would be too, because the information they’d all gathered didn’t add up to a coherent puzzle.

Admittedly, they had piqued my curiosity. Sitting here with these strange people, I felt like I was at the center of the action, without the spotlight being on me like it was with the pack, especially now that the Rolanows were here.

Larissa spoke up. “I think she kept writing and hid the rest of the journal somewhere, maybe because she knew something would happen. The hidden pages you found the other day, Bay, are the best proof of that.” She was right. Even if I wouldn’t tell her that. “The only question is where. Where would you hide diary entries?”

“It is a weird coincidence that you found them in order. Maybe there were just these two parts of the book?” Miles said critically.

I tried not to let on that I agreed.

“Nonsense. Coincidences exist,” Larissa laughed before waving his point off.

“I’d keep looking in the house if I were you,” I said, hoping they didn’t think I was serious about helping them.

For me, the house was the only place where really important things could be hidden. After all, Alice’s room was there.

Of course, someone disagreed. And for once, it wasn’t Miles, but Bayla.

“I would keep looking at Alarik’s office. He was the only person Alice seemed to have opened up to. What if he’s keeping these entries somewhere because she trusted him?”

“Aren’t you guys getting a little carried away? The professor would never have let us get away with it so easily if somethingthatimportant was lying around somewhere in his office,” Miles laughed, as if all of this was just a game to him.

“What if someone talks to him?” Larissa interjected.

I was sick of them trying to drag my family into this. Nevertheless, I answered honestly, hoping to finally convince them that they had no chance with Alarik. “The night you were with him, I tried. He said he was open, but he was silent about something.”

“Maybe because it’s you,” Miles joked.

Couldn’t he just leave me alone?

“Could be. The first time I broke into his office, he invited me for tea afterward and lent me a book written by Alice. He has very interesting opinions.”

My jaw dropped, and I stared at Bayla in horror.

“What?!”

Miles just laughed and turned away from me to walk to the kitchen, not without making a melodic sounding comment. “Your family doesn’t seem to be as innocent as you’d like them to be.”

What was he trying to say? That my uncle was hiding something? That he had done something bad?

Calm down Emely. These are just words. Words can’t irritate you, can’t hurt you, if you don’t let them get to you.

But the truth could. My uncle was different from the rest of my family. And I couldn’t get rid of the thought that he was somehow involved. What if he knew the whole truth?