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"Yeah, but she's the only one who stayed to eat with us, right?"

"She's lonely. You heard her talk about her husband. She said he's home three nights a month if she's lucky. Remember?"

"Right. She's lonely and your dad's hot."

"Stop calling my dad hot. And Lydia's not available. She's married."

"You're not usually so naive. What gives?"

"Quit calling me that. Shouldn't we work on our homework?" Alex asked. He looked eager for a new topic of conversation.

Zoey could feel tears threatening. "Why can't you leave me alone? My life has been crumbling around me for months now, getting worse with each passing month."

"You think mine isn't?"

"Not like mine is!"

"How so? My
sister
has been gone without a trace. I'm thirteen and going to be a dad. Now my mom won't come home."

Rage ran through Zoey. "Your missing sister is my best friend! Yeah, you're going to be a dad, but you're not the one getting bigger every day. I'm going to have to buy new shoes. You know why? Because even my feet are fat. People don't look at you and automatically know you're going to be a parent. I'm a neon sign for teenage pregnancy."

"Yeah, but when you wear flowing shirts like that one, it's not that noticeable."

"You don't know anything!" She got up and stormed out of the room.

He followed her. "What do you mean?"

"It means you didn't notice anyone pointing at me when we were at the movies today. You didn't hear what people said, loud enough for me to hear." She blinked back tears. What she wouldn't have given for a cigarette.

"Nobody said anything. If anyone had, I would have gotten in their faces and if necessary, beaten the crap out of them."

"Well, you know what? They did, and you weren't my knight in shining armor."

"What did they say?"

"Forget it, Alex. It's pointless. People were calling me a whore right under your nose and you didn't even notice."

"Why didn't you say anything?"

"Because the only thing I wanted was to get away from them. They were on their way out as we were going in. Besides, we can't fight everyone. Are we going to fight every time we go into public?"

"If people are going to call you names, then yes."

"That's why we left school. The best thing is probably for me to stay away from places like the movies and the mall. It's only a matter of time until the news picks up on this. I'm surprised they haven't yet."

"It's because they don't care about Macy anymore."

"My point is that I don't want to go out. At least the news isn't hounding you guys. That's, like, the one good thing going on."

"What about me?" Alex looked hurt.

"You? What about you?"

"Aren't I a good thing?"

Zoey frowned. "Most of the time."

"So, I'm not now? Is that what you're saying?"

"If the shoe fits."

He opened his mouth and then shut it.

"If you have something to say, say it."

"Zoey, I don't want to fight."

"Say it!"

Alex looked frustrated. "I'm not trying to compare who's having a harder time, okay? I know you love Macy like a sister. I know the pregnancy is obviously harder on you. Probably in a lot more ways than I think. You're the one solid in my life with everything else falling apart. I really don't want to fight."

"It's a little late for that." Zoey stormed to Macy's room.

"Are you going to stay there tonight?" Alex asked.

"Yep." She slammed the door behind her. She locked it and threw herself onto the bed, finally allowing the tears to fall. It felt like the world was crushing her, and arguing with Alex only made things worse. How could he have not seen those jerks pointing at her and calling her names?

She sat up and looked around Macy's room which had almost become hers.

Scratching noises brought her attention to the ferret cage. The cute, little face stared up at her. Ducky begged for attention. Sighing, she opened the cage and he ran down the levels and into her lap. He jumped around, making Zoey laugh, despite everything else. She picked him up and carried him to the bed.

Ducky scampered across the bed, hopping around like a flea. The poor thing was attention-starved. She hadn't paid him much attention, and she doubted anyone else had, either, aside from cleaning the cage. He darted under the covers and she watched as he moved around, making the blankets go up and down in the process.

She peeked into his cage—the litter box had piled up and the food dish was empty. Zoey wasn't supposed to clean any litter boxes—doctor's orders—so she would have to tell Alex or Chad. But she had to feed the poor thing.

Keeping her attention on the bouncing covers to make sure he didn't escape, Zoey got up and grabbed the bag of food and filled the food dish.

When she sat back down, Ducky popped out of the covers. He climbed up her shirt onto her shoulder and went around the back of her neck to the other side, tickling her. He got caught in her hair, so she had to pull him out, untangling her hair in the process.

It was nice to have the distraction. Ducky was so cute, and the way he jumped around was hilarious. If her life didn't suck so much, she would have laughed at him. Once free of her hair, he jumped around on top of the covers for a while, a few times trying to run down the bed, but Zoey grabbed him each time. The last thing she wanted to do was to have to chase him around the room.

When Macy had first gotten him, he had gotten stuck—or just enjoyed hiding—inside of the dresser behind a drawer. The two of them had spent hours chasing after him, trying to get him out. He darted through the drawers, out onto the floor, around the room, and back into the dresser again.

That was why Zoey was so careful not to let him off the bed. It had been hard enough for two of them to catch him, she didn't want to do have to chase him through the room on her own. He seemed to have more energy than ever before, and that was saying a lot for a ferret. He slept most of the day, cram-packing all that energy into a few short hours.

She was about ready to put him back in the cage when he dawdled over to her and snuggled against her bulging belly. Zoey leaned back and stroked his little body while he snuggled against her.

"You miss her, too? How are we going to get her back?" Zoey sat there, petting him until he fell asleep. "What are we going to do about anything?" Zoey's eyes got heavy and she didn't want to fall asleep and have Ducky wake up and get lost, so she put him back in the smelly cage and then climbed into Macy's bed, too tired to care about the stink of the litter box.

When she woke up, it was dark and she had to go to the bathroom really bad. She remembered when that intruder had broken into the Mercer's house, knocking Zoey out and leaving her in their garage. She held her breath, not wanting to go out.

The doctor had warned her flashbacks could occur at any time, even if it had been a long time. It had been months and she had almost forgotten about it, but she was terrified to go into the hall. She had been going to the bathroom in the middle of the night for a while with no problems. She also knew the Mercer's had bought a top of the line security system and still had the police keeping an eye on the place. Even though they didn't park out front anymore, they made a point to drive by often enough, especially at night.

The pressure on her bladder urged her to get out of bed. She slid her swelling feet onto the floor and tip-toed to the door. She put her ear against it, listening. The only thing she could hear was the sound of her own labored breathing.

Zoey opened the door, half-expecting to see the man standing there with a knife. Yes, she had an active imagination, but there was good reason for it this time. The hall was empty and dark, only lit with a night light several feet away. It was enough to see she had nothing to worry about.

She went to the bathroom and then considered going to Alex's room. She was still ticked at him for being so dense. Even if he hadn't heard what those kids had said at the theater, he should have believed her. He had been acting like such a buffoon, but she still wanted to be with him.

Tip-toeing again, she went to his room and slid the door open. The room was dark and she could hear his heavy breathing, so she closed the door behind her—not that Chad would care that they were in there together. Alyssa would, but she wasn't there.

Sliding in next to him, she made herself comfortable under the covers. She remembered the Star Wars sheets he'd had to put on the bed when the laundry had piled up. Alex had been really embarrassed, but Zoey was more impressed that they had found them in the queen size.

Alex stirred next to her. "Zoey?"

"Yeah." She moved closer to him, feeling her anger melt away.

He wrapped an arm around her. "You're not mad at me?"

She shook her head, not actually answering.

"I love you," he whispered and then his breathing slipped back to what it had been. She listened to the rhythm for a few minutes before falling asleep herself.

Mirror

Macy stood at the window of Heather's room in the hospital. It was late, but she couldn't sleep. Heather still hadn't come back to the room, although she did see another nurse, who came in looking surprised.

She had said, "Heather, what are you doing here? I thought you were still on the second floor."

Macy smiled. "Got off on good behavior."

The nurse's eyes widened. "Really? Well, that's certainly good news." Then she had brought Macy dinner, which wasn't very good, but was at least something in her stomach. And it was something that Macy hadn't had to cook herself.

That had been hours ago. Candice had checked on her a couple times, but said she was busy with other patients. Macy was anxious to meet Heather, the girl she had been pretending to be for months. The girl who no one questioned was her, not even her grandparents or her neighbor who had known her since she was a baby. Even Macy, when looking at Heather's pictures, had a hard time believing they weren't of her. She had seen twins who had looked less alike than Heather and her.

The door opened and Macy jumped. She ran to a corner and slid down to the floor. Someone was shoved into the room. "Stay there and be good. You don't want to go back to the second floor, Heather. I'm locking the door, but hopefully tomorrow we won't have to." The door slammed shut and Macy heard the lock go into place.

Her heart picked up speed. How was she going to introduce herself to Heather?

Heather swore and then turned on the light. She turned around and froze when she saw Macy. "Who the…? What? Is this some kind of trick? Are they trying to—?"

Macy stood up. "Heather, I—"

"Are they trying to mess with me? Who are you and why do you look exactly like me? Even your hair!" She picked up a book and held it as though it were a weapon. She stared at Macy. "You look
just
like me. What's going on?"

"Let me explain. Please."

Heather lowered the book slightly, giving Macy a suspicious look. "I guess I have nothing better to do. But first, who
are
you?"

Macy held her hands up slightly, showing her that she wasn't going to hurt her. She sat in a chair. "It's a long story. You might want to sit."

"This should be good." Heather sat on the bed, not taking her eyes off Macy.

"My name is Macy Mercer and your dad kidnapped me to replace you."

Heather's face appeared to soften. "What?"

Macy wrung her hands together. He found me online and pretended to be someone else—a teenage boy—so I would meet him. When I did, he kidnapped me. He locked me up until I agreed to call him Dad." Macy went on to explain some of what Chester had put her through, describing him and her grandparents so Heather would know she wasn't lying. She even described the farm house and the house she had just left.

The book dropped from Heather's hands and hit the floor. "He replaced me?" Her eyes shone with tears. "What about Mom? Did he replace her, too?"

"Yeah, he replaced her too, with a younger model. I'm sorry."

Tears spilled down her cheeks. "How did you know I was here? How did you get in? Do the nurses finally believe me?"

"I got away from your dad and then your stupid neighbor brought me here."

"Candice."

Macy nodded. "But it actually worked out because I wanted to help get you out of here."

"How'd you know I was here? If Dad wanted you to be me, he wouldn't have told you I was here."

"I found your diaries."

"You read my private journals?" Heather's face flashed with anger. "How dare you?"

"How could I not? I didn't know what had happened to you or your mom. I knew nothing. You think Chester was going to tell me anything? Besides, I at least knew where to find you. That's why I didn't fight to get away from Candice. She was my ticket to get in here to help you get out."

Heather calmed down. "I probably would have done the same thing. Well, what about your family?"