Chapter 4

A few days before the SATs, Ethan showed up at my parents' house.

He handed me a small, elegantly wrapped box. It was the designer perfume I' d idly mentioned wanting months ago, the one I knew I couldn' t afford on my student budget.

"Just a little something," he said, his smile confident, almost smug. "Don't worry, I'll ace these SATs, be back at Harvard next fall, Chloe will get in too, it' ll all work out."

He seemed to expect me to be grateful, to be reassured by his grand plan.

I just looked at him.

"Good luck with your exams, Ethan," I said, and closed the door.

I left the perfume on the hall table, unopened.

The pop-up comments were strangely quiet, just a single, sad one.

The night before the SATs, my phone rang. Ethan.

"You haven't even called to wish me luck," he complained, his voice petulant. "You used to make me that special brain-food smoothie before big tests. You don't care about this at all, do you?"

I didn't say anything, just listened to him whine.

"Hello? Sarah?"

"I'm busy, Ethan," I said, and hung up.

The day after the SATs, I took a deep breath and typed out a text.

«Ethan, we're breaking up.»

I hit send before I could second-guess myself.

A few hours later, Ben called, his voice frantic.

"Sarah, have you heard from Ethan? He' s missing. His mom is freaking out, he never came home after the SATs."