Twisted by Lisa Harrington Page A

my life slaving away in that bakery? That I’d be happy doing it?
    Chewing angrily on my toast, I give him the evil eye.
    He sits there, all oblivious, turning pages.
    Who is this person?
    I find myself thinking back to the first time I met Aidan. It was the summer I turned twelve. Mom sat me down at the kitchen table. Told me how she’d run into an old friend at the Co-op, someone she’d known from high school. He’d moved away years ago, and now he was back. Widowed. With a fourteen-year-old son. They came that night for supper. Aidan sat across from me at the table. I spent the entire meal glaring at my plate. We mumbled a few words to each other, but that was about it.
    Mom and Vince got married three months later, that Thanksgiving Day weekend. We became a family. Sort of.
    â€œHere. Do you still like to do the Word Jumble?” Aidan holds out a section of the paper.
    I’m lost in thought. “What?”
    â€œThe Word Jumble. Don’t tell me you’ve forgotten how we used to fight over the puzzle page. My thumb’s never been the same since that time you sprained it.”
    â€œRight. That.” I grin and take the paper.
    I fold it and fold it again so only the part with the Jumble shows, and slide it under the edge of my plate. Vince didn’t like anyone touching his paper, let alone writing in it, especially if he hadn’t read it yet. It only took us one time, one screaming match, one grounding, to figure that out. So Aidan and I would wait till we were sure he was done and then we’d race from wherever to see who could get to it first. That turned into more of a game than the actual Jumble.
    I feel Aidan’s eyes on me.
    â€œI lied,” he says. “About how I met Marla.”
    â€œOh. So how did you meet her?” Under the table I cross my fingers, hoping he tells me the truth.
    He takes his time answering. “I, um … I met her in the hospital.” He pauses again. “In the psychiatric ward.”
    I decide not to react, in case it scares him off or something, and makes him stop talking.
    â€œVince,” he continues. “He told Dr. Fraser a bunch of lies. Got him to sign some paper. Then he drove me straight to Halifax, dumped me in the hospital, and left me there. For observation ,” he adds.
    Another puzzle piece slides into place. “That’s why you were gone when I got back from camp. Why you never said goodbye.”
    â€œDidn’t really get a chance,” he says bitterly.
    â€œThey told me you just … left. That things got so bad between you and Vince, you thought it would be best for everyone to leave.”
    â€œWell. Some of that’s true.”
    â€œAnd then there was the shed … all your stuff … burned. Gone.”
    He shuts his eyes like the memory hurts.
    â€œI kept waiting for you to email, or write, tell me what happened,” I say. “But I never heard a word.”
    â€œI thought about it. But I knew Vince would intercept anything. I almost called Caroline, to go through her. Then I figured maybe I should just leave it alone. If I tried to make contact and he found out, you’d be the one he’d take his anger out on. Better to have you be pissed at me than have him pissed at you.”
    I feel guilty. I’ve been so mad, confused, and hurt for so long, and here he was looking out for me. It’s what we used to do for each other. “I should have known it was something …”
    Pushing himself back from the table, he clears his throat. “It’s all over with now.”
    â€œThe shed,” I say. “They told me you burned it down.”
    â€œDo you think I burned it down?”
    I tell him the truth. “I don’t know. I wasn’t there.”
    Aidan opens his mouth as if to say something but then leaves the kitchen without a word.

CHAPTER 13
    I can’t focus. I’ve screwed up two lattes already and that was in the