“Di, did you know?”

Cassie burst into her sister’s room, not bothering to knock. Di put down her book and sighed.

“I assume you mean about Mom and Dad?”

“Yes! No wait, what?” Cassie stopped short, thrown off of her laser focus on finding out the truth about this lawsuit. Di was in law school; he might have talked to her about it.

Di looked at her, frowning.

“What are you talking about?” she asked Cassie.

“No, what are you talking about? Are Mom and Dad getting a divorce?”

Di sighed again.

“I don’t know. But after what’s been happening, they’re seeing a marriage counselor.”

“What exactly has been happening?” Cassie’s voice was on edge now. She’d been thinking about it ever since she left Logan on his front porch, a lingering kiss cut short by the ever-present Hideki. She could have spent all night with Logan, and wanted to wait for him outside the restaurant until he finished his shift. Maybe she should have, instead of hearing whatever Di was about to tell her. Cassie’s heart was pounding in her chest so loudly, she was afraid she wouldn’t be able to actually hear what her sister was about to say.

“There’s a situation,” said Di, her brow furrowed and mouth turned down. “With a former employee.”

Cassie bit her lip. She wanted to ask about what Logan had told her, but held off. Hearing this side of things could be helpful.

“A former employee? One of the contractors?”

Di shook her head.

“A woman. It’s raising a lot of issues between Mom and Dad.”

Cassie wasn’t surprised. If what Logan had told her was true—and she had no reason to think he was lying—then it couldn’t have been easy for her picture-perfect mom to accept.

“Is that why she wasn’t here at the beginning of the summer?”

Di nodded. Cassie sank down into the bed next to her. The room was pretty bare, since Di was almost never at the lake, but there were still touches of her big sister sprinkled around: a teddy bear from when they were kids, a framed picture of the four of them.

“Honestly, I’m surprised they lasted this long,” said Di, putting her arm around Cassie’s shoulder. “But they’re both so involved in everything in Helena, they can’t risk something like this.”

“Risk? He’s not the mayor or anything.” She leaned into her big sister, breathing in her familiar perfume. The same one as their mom. Cassie had gotten her own bottle of it on graduation day, but hadn’t taken it out of the box yet. It still seemed too much of a grown up thing to do, and this was her last summer as a kid. Sort of.

“Yeah, but Dad’s business depends a lot on people liking him, and his family. They’ve been bugging me a lot about moving back. The internship this summer in Helena got them way too excited.”

Cassie wrinkled her nose.

“Why would you do that? California is awesome!”

Di laughed.

“Still time to change your mind. Stanford would be right down the road from me.”

Cassie sighed and pulled away. This wasn’t the time to rehash her decision about college and she hadn’t even gotten the answers she wanted. But she wasn’t going to get them from her sister, apparently.

“I’ll think about it,” she said with a smile. With a final hug from her sister, Cassie went in search of the one person who would have the answers—her dad.

Cassie walked around the house, her dad nowhere to be found and his fishing pole missing from the hall closet. Going out on the lake in the early evening was not really the best time to catch anything, but maybe he needed the quiet after the party last night. She wandered into her parents’ room, looking for her mom instead and was surprised to find her packing a bag.

“I thought you were staying all week,” Cassie said, sitting on the bed like she used to when she was little.

“There are some things I need to take care of in Helena.”

Cassie looked at her closely, trying to see the emotion behind her eyes. Everything she’d learned about dealing with people had been from her mom. Every movement was calculated to make others feel a certain way. It had been helpful in high school when Cassie needed to get the other cheerleaders to agree, or to convince a teacher to extend a deadline for her.

But now it just felt fake. She was surrounded by lies. Her parents had both been lying to her all summer. Diana had only told her the half of it. Logan was the only one who cared about her feelings and had been willing to share everything he knew.

And Cassie still shouldn’t be totally honest with him. Because that’s not how they did it in her family.

“What kind of things?” Cassie swung her feet against the side of the bed and let them fall against the solid oak bed frame.

Thunk, thunk. Thunk, thunk.

“Just business things,” her mom said, folding a red cardigan in careful thirds before placing it on top of an identically folded blue one in her open suitcase.

“Your business or Dad’s business?”

Her mom glanced up with a look that might have even been panic, before smoothing her face into a smile.

“It’s nothing for you to worry about. Just focus on Columbia. I’m so happy you finally decided. I told everyone at the party.”

Despite everything, Cassie’s chest swelled at the pride in her mom’s voice.

“I started talking to someone who might know about an apartment you could rent, but when I turned around, you’d disappeared.”

And just as quickly, the pride was replaced with a sinking dread as her mom shot her a pointed glare.

“Sorry about that,” Cassie said. “I just couldn’t handle seeing Spencer there with Marissa.”

Her mom closed her eyes and took a deep breath.

“These things happen, sweetheart,” she said, opening her eyes. She went to her nightstand and picked up a few trinkets to add to her bag. “You have to learn to just put on a brave face and deal with people who have disappointed you.”

“You mean lie?” Cassie kept her voice even, just as she’d been taught.

Her mother clicked her tongue in annoyance.

“It’s not lying to learn to live civilly with others,” she said, with a glance at Cassie’s feet hanging over the edge of the bed. “You can’t go around yelling and crying whenever you feel like it.”

“I know,” Cassie mumbled, her feet banging again. Thunk, thunk. “That’s why I left. So I didn’t cry.”

Her mom stopped her packing and pursued her lips.

“I know we expect a lot of you, Cassie. But it’s only because we know you’re capable of it. We’ve set everything up so that you and your sister can have the best life possible. I don’t think it’s asking too much when there are certain expectations for your behavior that go along with that life.”

Thunk, thunk, went her feet against the bed.

“Cassie,” her mom shot her a warning glance at her feet. She stopped, her foot held high, ready to fall again.

She knew what her mom expected of her. What everyone expected of her.

But what about her expectations of them? Everyone had been lying to her all summer, and now she was in an awful position. She believed Logan, but what was she supposed to do about it? Yell at her parents? Demand her dad pay his mom?

Cassie sighed and lowered her foot slowly, and silently. Her mom smiled and nodded then turned her attention back to packing her bag.

Cassie waited to see if there was anything else, but knew that was all she would be getting out of her mom. At least until her next visit, whenever that would be.