Page 215 of The Right Sign

Lucy juts a manicured hand at the door, her face set like stone. Her expression reminds me of Dare when he tore up the contract. Apathy. She’s totally disengaged. She’s washed her hands. She’s done.

Mom opens her mouth to argue, but I tug on her sleeve. We won’t get any information out of Lucy.

I muster a smile and wave goodbye to Talia. Her face crumples in dismay and she forms the word ‘noooo’ clearly enough that I can lipread. She runs toward us, but her mom grabs her, holding her back. Talia bucks, bawling out to us. Whatever she says, it makes my mother’s eyes turn misty.

We leave and the door slams so forcefully shut that I pick up the vibration in my hearing aids.

Mom stands there for a second, her nostrils flaring and her eyes blinking a mile a minute. I touch her arm in comfort, watching as she takes a breath, gathers herself and offers me a small smile that makes my heart ache even worse.

“I doubt you got what you came for,” she says. Switching to signing, she adds, “what are we going to do now?”

She signed ‘we’.

Overwhelmed, I rush forward and give her a hug.

Mom eases me back, her chin wobbling. “Alright, that’s enough. Let’s get back to the car.”

On the drive home, I log into social media. My notifications are bursting at the brim. There are tons of encouraging messages from my ‘fans’, the fickle people who just recently called me a ‘scammer’.

I scroll through those and tap on Dare’s profile.

Private.

My jaw drops.

Dare blocked me.

It feels like I just got sucker punched.

Earnestly, I hunt for a way to locate his whereabouts. Mosely’s account hasn’t been used for ten years. I text José, but he hasn’t been working with Dare since our breakup and has no idea where Dare is now.

I want to get Sazuki’s help so badly, but I refuse to interrupt my sister’s bae-cation because of my crisis. She deserves to have a nice time without me piling on my problems.

Mom parks in front of our house and asks, “Anything?”

I shake my head. “He blocked me.”

Mom cringes. She might be decades ahead of me, but even she understands the severity of a social media diss.

“Maybe there’s another way to get his attention,” she suggests.

“How?”

“You know him best. What’s most important to Dare?”

It doesn’t take me long to answer. “His family,” I sign.

“Should we ask Talia to spy on her mother? I’m sure she would. She’s very resourceful.”

“Mom, no! She’s a child.”

“Which is why no one would suspect her.” Mom raises both eyebrows and I realize that I might be living with a secret war general.

“We’re not recruiting little kids to be our spies, mom. I know there’s another way to get through to him. I just…”

An idea hits me like a flying freight train.

Thumbs whirring, I summon the group chat.