Page 21 of Tear Me Apart

Juliet sits on the edge of the bed. “You look distracted. Are you worried? I’m sure we’ll find a match.”

“Well, yeah, sure I’m worried. But it’s not that. Do you remember anyone ever calling my mom Liesel?”

“Liesel? Like the kid inThe Sound of Music? No. Why do you ask?”

Mindy feels her face turn red, and Aunt J’s right brow hikes.

“What did you do?”

“Nothing. I didn’t do anything, I swear. Mom has this weird letter in her underwear drawer from 1993. Whoever wrote it must have been a good friend, it said she missed her, and there was some other stuff. Mom was crying when she read it. You were, what, five, six in 1993? Do you remember anything strange?”

“I barely remember anything before we moved here in 1994. I was in first grade, and that’s when I got into the idea of going to space. With all the aerospace companies here, lots of parents worked at a firm called Martin Marietta, now Lockheed Martin, that made the rocket boosters. They were all into space stuff. We used to watch every launch—they’d bring all the grades into the cafeteria. For a little girl, it was almost like going to the movies, but it was real. The space bug bit me, and from then on, I wanted to be an astronaut. But I don’t remember much before that.”

“But Mom?”

“Your mom was away at boarding school. I barely saw her.” She is playing with Mindy’s ChapStick, turning it over and over as if remembering the weird dislocation of not having a sister around outside of photos and phone calls.

“I didn’t know she went to boarding school.”

“God, what was it called... Kent Country Day, something like that. Really elite school. Mom had to work two jobs to keep her there. Lauren worked, too, she was on scholarship, didn’t get to come home on breaks or anything. Then she went to college and studied art and met your dad and you came along. You know we weren’t super close. She was so much older than me.”

“Do you remember anything else?”

“Nope. Sorry, kiddo. We just weren’t the kind of sisters who confided in one another. I could ask about it for you.”

“No. No way. She’ll know I was snooping.”

“I’m sure she’d forgive you. You are practically under house arrest, after all. Hey, tell me about the new skis you’re getting for Christmas.”

“What?”

“I thought I overheard someone talking about a sponsorship? K2, was it?”

Mindy squeals, all thoughts of Lauren and the mystery letter gone.

10

Juliet is rattled by Mindy’s line of questioning but tries to stay cool.

There’s an explanation. It’s a mistake.There’s a completely rational reason why the labs don’t match up.

Mindy is so overjoyed at the thought of the K2 sponsorship that she takes the explanation at face value and doesn’t ask again. They goof around for another twenty minutes until Lauren and Jasper come back, not exactly smiling, but looking a little less peaked.

“Hey, sis. They have meat loaf and mashed potatoes. Why don’t you go down and grab some?”

“I think I will. I skipped lunch. Mindy, you want anything?”

“More Hot Tamales. They have the boxes by the register.”

“Your wish is my command, princess. Back in a few.”

Juliet leaves them to adore their daughter. The nurse who busted her is nowhere to be seen, but she waits until she gets to the elevator to call Cameron.

He answers on the first ring in his crisp British accent.

“Juliet Ryder, please tell me you’ve decided to chuck that nasty job chasing criminals and come to work for me.”

“Hey, Cameron. No, sadly, I’m still a slave to the CBI. It’s that whole getting justice for the underrepresented thing. Call me crazy.”