Secrets in the Attic (Secrets 1)

"I will." I had already told her that I held my

breath. Would my mother see through me? I could see

she believed my being on the verge of tears was solely

because of what Karen had done and had nothing to

do with my raging conscience.

"And we'll hold your father to his promise to

take us to see a show in the city this weekend, okay?"

"Yes," I said, smiling.

I helped clean up the kitchen and then went up

to my room to wait. She stopped by again to tell me

she was going and again told me to stay in touch with

my father. I knew they were both expecting Karen

would be in touch with me, and they both feared I

wouldn't do the right thing.

As soon as I looked out the window and saw

her drive off, I headed up to the attic. Karen was

standing by the window facing the front, too, and

knew my mother was gone. She was dressed in one of

the antique dresses we put on when we sat up in the

attic and pretended. For a moment, seeing her like that

took me by such surprise I couldn't move or speak. It

was as if she had turned back time to a point when we

were up there amusing ourselves and nothing more. "What are you doing home?" she asked quickly.

She looked angry about it instead of happy. "You

could give it all away."

"I thought you'd be alone too long, so I got my

parents to let me stay. I didn't want to face all those

petite bourgeoisie, anyway."

"You should have gone to school," she said,

instead of showing appreciation and gratitude. "The