LANNETTE SHOWED UP next day just after my mother and hers finally decided they’d go for some lunch. They’d been with me since before breakfast. Tried all morning to convince me I needed nourishment if I was to recover quickly. Really, I had no desire for food of any sort, liquid or solid, or anything that happened to be in between. My stomach was knotted with sickening apprehension. What if I got found out before I even got out of my room? What if—
I forced myself not to go down that road. There were no “what ifs.” It was all going to turn out just as I wanted and imagined.
It had to.
The humiliation of such a failed plot would be unbearable! South America wouldn’t be far enough away; I’d have to leave the planet!
Lannette seemed more jumpy than I expected her to be, and she wouldn’t s
