CHAPTER 1

 Standing in the rain with soaked clothes and the sad reality of what she was, beyond a replaceable girl, everything the outsiders was perfect, what Grace wanted what she always wanted and they never allowed her to have what happens to happiness  It seemed to slip through his fingers, he kissed her and smiled as if she were the best thing he had ever seen as he had never seen her, for her, there were only conspiratorial glances and kisses stolen secretly under the stairs.

 But of course, now she could watch the perfect family from the backyard, them washing dishes together and her there in the rain, away from him, so they could only have some time.

 Of course, he sends the lover out of her and the other inside her, look at me, everything inside her was screaming at him but that was the problem, he never saw her, he only sees the silhouette, the shell, the body, the beauty, the ease.

 It was enough, now he couldn't just be looking at the man who promised him, eternities with her again with someone else.

 She walked out of the garden and she crossed the street, the rain was falling incessantly and everything was already soaked up to her underwear and her stinky feet inside the slippers, at least that way the tears could not be distinguished.

 The headlights of her sports car in front of her mowed her down for a moment

 Gabe got out of the car and walked briskly alongside her until he held her tightly by the arm.

—  What are you doing here?  You can't do this Grace, you're going to get sick, you can't just think about yourself now …

—    Stop it!  Shut up, just shut up, you don't understand, you'll never understand Gabe, get me out of here, take me away.  She yelled into his face and clung to him as tight as a life preserver, Gabe kissed Grace's forehead tenderly.

—    We have to talk to our parents, you can no longer just go home the following year.

 She held him closer to hers, her body and her chin resting on her head, Grace breathed in the scent of wild pine that Gabe's clothes had, he always smelled of woods and pines.  Gabe was freedom, strength, love.  The tears rolled down her cheeks again.  Instead, he only smelled her, he looked at the house half blurred by the rain curtain and a sob escaped him, Gabe held her closer to her body.

—    Everything will be fine honey, we are together.  He whispered in her ear.

 She kissed him on the lips of her knowing it was a lie, she kissed the sadness that she produced when kissing him when she only wanted to kiss the man at the window, she kissed him with the desire to kiss someone else.

—    What is the difference between love and caprice?  I ask about Gabe's lips.

—    That the whim lasts longer.  He replied smiling at the phrase from his favorite classic, he didn't know that Grace had been going through her things.

—    I want you to be my whim, his voice came out rough and tight.

 He buried his head in Gabe's neck and breathed in her scent, which told him that only hers was hers but she wanted the one who belonged to someone else.

—    Too bad you're not.  He said so softly that not even she was heard by the ruckus of the rain.

°°°

 The class was deserted, the seats were empty, the room fell into a deathly silence and the windows seemed to have been opened a long time ago, the autumn leaves that the breeze brought rustled under the feet of Ilem, room number forty-two of the third building they were just ruins and old study articles.

 It was unfair, Ilem's mother was the headmistress, but bringing the punishments for problems at home to the institute was a new level of cruelty.

 The phone vibrated in Ilem's pocket for a while but she was not going to answer, not with all the work she had, she would have to break her nails to tear off the floor if she wanted it to be white, it had been almost three days since she had woken up at Ian's house without remembering what had happened the night before and to make matters worse Ian was not at home, his mother had told him that he went out in the morning to a swimming competition north of Liverpool three hours away and she could only blush for having left Ian's room looking like she had fought with the pillow.

 And to make the situation worse when he got home he had nothing to say, he did not remember where he had been or worse what he had done or who he had been with, Ian is Gabe's best friend, and he knows that if he will tell his brother that she stayed where Ian was going to roll heads, so she just said that she had slept at Jim's house, which his mother found out to be a lie about three hours ago and was grounded.

 The phone started its irritating movement again on the old desk where Ilem had left it to start scrubbing the dirt off the floor, she started to turn it off when her sister's name flashed on the screen.

—    What's wrong? —Allin was talking too fast for Ilem to follow her so when she finally stopped talking, Ilem asked again—. Allin I didn't understand anything, what's wrong?

—    The police called and asked for you, and they talked about Grace, but I didn't understand anything. It seems that someone reported her as a missing person and Gabe went to the police station with dad, you have to go back.

—     I can't, Mom punished me for Friday. Grace always does the same thing, maybe she is at Hannah's house, if I go, Mom, she will make me clean the boys' bathrooms.

 When she lifted the phone from her ear the living room door slammed against the wall so hard that the glass in the small window cracked, Ilem jumped in her place in shock.

 Gabe burst inside, smashing the autumn leaves and looking the most furious Ilem had ever seen him.

—    What the hell were you doing with Grace on Friday? —Gabe yelled at his face like an angry father, his brother had never yelled at him like that, she didn't answer, she just looked at him and opened and closed her mouth like a fish out of the box water.

—    Tell me Ilem what you were doing with Grace in the library at midnight

—    I… I told you Gabe I don't remember anything from Friday night.

—    Ilem has not seen Grace since Friday night she was reported as a missing person because I don't know who and you are the last to have seen her that leaves you as a possible suspect.

—     But for Grace always does that, you know, we all know, she leaves.  She lives in our house, how the hell can I be a suspect when I live with her.

 Ilem moved away from Gabe and went to the window, took a deep breath, and wanted to scream, first Ian did not answer her calls for an explanation as to why he was in his bed on Saturday morning and now she was a possible suspect in Grace's disappearance, he didn't even remember Grace being home on Friday morning because he did remember Friday morning but then everything was too blurry.

—    How do the police know that I was with Grace? —I ask her brother but without looking at him yet.

—    They have a recording.  He replied, walked over to the window, and stood next to Ilem.

—    Ilem?  He pronounced doubtfully.  What happened on Friday?

Ilem blew out a breath and tried to find something that wouldn't get Ian in trouble with Gabe, she had to make sure what Ian's role had been that night before saying where he was.

—     I told you a lot of times that I don't know Gabe, you think I'm not terrified that I have serious problems because of this, Mom is going to kill me, Dad I know he's going to help but you know how Mom is.

Gabe's eyes let themselves be so severe and he took Ilem into a tight hug.

—    Ilem I believe you, but you know that Grace is important to me, and you know that I'm scared that something bad could happen to you because of her I ...

—     I know, it's okay Gabe.  You're right I have to find out what happened, but enough of hoping that Grace is that girl, she is not, she is not that girl and she will never be. You are hurting yourself.

 She walked away from her brother and left the room but Gabe caught up with her in the hall near the stairs and stopped her

—    Ian is worried about all the calls you made on his phone.  Gabe said in a reproachful voice

 Ilem stood in the place so seized with fear that she wanted to run

—    I need you to tell me why she still hasn't returned the book I lent her, Ilem lied without looking at her brother

—    Ian read?, Gabe asked smiling and walked slowly in front of Ilem

 They both just went down the stairs, after the little smile he gave her brother he didn't ask anything else, but she still had a question that was tormenting her head and she had to ask Gabe before much happened and was gone.  strange.

—     I thought Ian competed, she said without looking interested

—    Yes, but today he came home and checked her phone —she said she had about twenty calls from you, her brother smiled—. What book did you lend him that you are in such a hurry?

— They are the rain poems, you know it's my favorite I want it back, she said ready to go take the bus car to go to Ian's house

 — Come on I'll take you, anyway Ian and I are going out.

Okay, she said unconvinced, she was not going to be able to question Ian with Gabe there.

 Ian opened the door and smiled at Ilem with those dimples that made her smile one of the most beautiful not to mention the shower of freckles on her nose, Ilem felt her chest fill with longing.

—       Hello.  Ilem said without being able to ask anything because her brother was there just a step away in the car

—    Only Hello you say after ... I hesitate a second before continuing.  Call me like her a thousand times she said she staring at her

—     I… I need my book.

—    What book? —he asks with a strange expression

 Ilem was scared that he was going to say whatever happened, she had told herself that it was because of Gabe who did not say anything about Saturday, but it was that she was scared of being one of Ian's list because that would hurt, he knew it would affect his friendship with Gabe, but Ian was not dumb enough to do that with his best friend's sister.  truth?

 "The one I loaned you last week," she said with wide eyes and clenched teeth.  He looked over her shoulder and saw Gabe in the car greeted him and went back into his house

—     Do you come? —Ian asked her when he saw that she did not enter the house, but that she was looking at him.

 She walked after him into the hallway between the kitchen and the living room when he stopped and turned to look at her.

—    What are you doing, Fuller?  I have not taken any books from you.  He said hers looking at her this time angrily.  First, on Friday morning you show up here and try to kiss me and now Gabe tells me that I have to help him know what happened to you on Friday and that Grace disappeared and you were the last to see her.

—     Ian, I don't remember anything about Friday night, I only know that on Saturday I woke up in your room and your mom looked at me like any other when I asked where you were

—     Of course, I was going to see you like this, you came here like a drunk, and I had to say that Gabe left you here because you overdid your drinks and couldn't take you home like that.

 So I just got here I knocked on your door and I wanted to rape you, Ian Martin the poor boy you are carrying me, come on, if you are ...

—     Ilem, you are the sister of my best friend, I would never do that to you, go overboard with you while you're intoxicated with God knows what.

—    Stop it!  Well, the point is, Gabe doesn't know and you didn't tell him, so I'll have to tell him.  Thanks again, Martin.  He said wryly

Ilem moved towards the door but Ian stopped her.

 Are you going without your book?  He smirked

—    You are an idiot Ian, she let out angrily, she was leaving him all the responsibility of telling Gabe that God knows where she had been on Friday and incidentally that she had been fried in her house.  Gabe was going to kill her and he was also going to distrust what happened on Friday.  Or if Grace was a victim or a perpetrator.  A shock suddenly reached deep into her bones that Grace had made with her.