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“I could get in a lot of trouble,” he said. “You’re under eighteen. You need a parent’s permission. You really shouldn’t have put me in this position.”
“I know,” I said. “I’m really sorry. And I’m sorry about the money for my mother’s ticket—I’ll pay you back.”
“It isn’t the money, Audie, and you know it.”
I blew out a breath. “How long have you known?”
“I suspected when I picked you up at the airport,” he said. “But I wasn’t sure until that phone call you just had.”
“But that wasn’t my mom,” I said.
“But you still didn’t want me to hear it,” the professor answered. “Which told me you’ve been lying to me.”
There was nothing else I could say. “So what are you going to do?”
Professor Whitfield shook his head. “I don’t know yet. Keep going, for now. You’re here, and we’ve already
