Several thousand dollars richer, I sat in front of Tamara, holding her hands.

I’d spent the whole damn weekend creating a story about how the kid who’d been her brother had woken up to look for her, then wandered out of the house.

They’d lived in a mountainous area, and while they’d searched, there was no way they could search everywhere. My plan was to tell her that the ‘spirit’ of her eight-year-old brother would come to me and tell her what happened. He’d gotten lost, then fallen and gotten hurt. After a while, he’d gotten tired and drifted off, and that was all he remembered. Nothing bad, nice and peaceful, and it would give her closure.

I had no idea what really happened to her brother.

The case had been deemed cold years ago. After digging up the contact info for one of the investigating officers, I talked to him and learned what they thought was likely. That was how I came up with the story. There hadn’t been any signs of forced entry, and the cops thought it was entirely possible that he woke up and couldn’t find his sister, got worried and went outside to look for her. While the parents couldn’t believe he’d gotten lost in the area where he so often played, the mountains were different at night, and it was easier to get lost, especially for a young child.

It was a viable enough story, and I’d wrap it up in a nice neat little bow, telling her she could move on.

I had the money she’d brought to cover my time and the ‘trouble’ it took to reach a spirit without any sort of so-called line. If I was a little more morally bankrupt when this was done, at least my sister was safe from marrying Ephraim.

“There’s…” I hesitated a moment. “Okay, there’s somebody here, but it’s a woman.” Opening my eyes, I gave her a strained smile. “I’ll have to deal with her. I can’t leave her out here unconnected.”

I went through that charade two more times, then luckily, I sensed the presence of a young boy, and it was on.

I couldn’t say I felt anything resembling victory as I rushed to the school to get Joelle. I’d already told her she needed to be ready to go via text, ignoring her questions about why.

I’d had to sign her out before so it wasn’t an issue for me to show up to take her out of school, but as we rushed down the sidewalk, I had to resist the urge to send furtive glances all around.

A few of the kids from other families in the clan had kids who went here. I didn’t want anybody noticing us for fear it would be reported back.

I’d fought Papa tooth and nail so he’d let us go to public school and not be homeschooled the way many kids in the clan were, and he’d agreed, mostly because he didn’t want to mess with it. School had become less of a problem for Rom kids with modern society. If you wanted to live in the modern world, you had to go along with some things. Otherwise, things like gadje police and social workers tended to come a-knocking. That had happened with Papa twice, social workers coming by to check and make sure we were attending school and doing all the things good little girls our ages should be doing.

Papa had hated it, but it was entirely likely those visits were the reason we’d gotten to go to public school and have something that resembled a normal teenager’s life – for a little while, at least.

But if we were homeschooled, I wouldn’t have to make this extra stop right now. We could already be on the road.

Think about some of your cousins. They’re homeschooled in the clan and can barely read on a ninth-grade level. They care about appearances, not about an education, I reminded myself.

Once we were in the beat-up car that Papa let me use, I looked at Joelle. “We’re leaving. I’m not letting you marry Ephraim.”

Her eyes widened.

“What?” she sputtered. “How? How are we going to take care of ourselves?”

“I’ve already worked all of that out. Come on. Papa is out doing his rounds for Vano. We’ve got a little time, and I’ve already packed up most of our stuff, but we need to get it and get out of the house before he gets back.”

“You…” Joelle sounded dazed as I started the car. “What do you mean you took care of it? We need money, sister. We need a lot of…” She gasped, her hand coming up to cover her mouth. “Oh, no. Suri, tell me you didn’t.”

Her hushed whisper had me tightening my hands on the wheel. “Don’t worry about it, Jo,” I advised her. “I got this handled.”

“Tell me you didn’t work a job outside the clan. You could get in so much trouble for that!”

“I’m not telling you anything other than not to worry. My job is to take care of you, and that’s what I’m doing. Now…” I hit the right blinker and merged so I could take the turn to get to the house. It was only a ten-minute walk, but we didn’t have time for a walk. We had to hurry. Our new life was waiting.