Chapter 41: Anastasia

The rain from the morning has reduced to a thin mist by three o'clock in the afternoon. The asphalt of the lower school pickup loop is wet, reflecting the yellow parking lights of the idling luxury SUVs that form lines from the main gate back to the outer highway. St. Jude security guards in high-visibility jackets stand at the intervals of the concrete islands, their earpieces crackling with the names of students being called from the holding rooms.

I stand on the limestone edge of the Section A pickup island, my hands inside the pockets of my dark blue trench coat. To my right, Harper’s mother and...