Chapter 1:*THE PHOTOGRAPH*
Debs Angelo had always believed that moving to a new town meant getting a fresh start.
She was beginning to realize that she had been wrong.
The first morning at her new school started normally enough.
She walked through the crowded hallway with her timetable in one hand and her phone in the other, trying desperately not to look lost.
She failed.
“First day?”
Debs looked up.
A girl with curly hair and a bright smile was standing beside her.
“Is it that obvious?”
“A little,” the girl laughed. “I'm Ashley Brennan.”
“Debs Angelo.”
Ashley smiled.
“Come on, Debs. I'll show you where you're going before you accidentally walk into the science lab.”
Debs laughed and followed her.
For the first time that morning, she felt a little less nervous.
By lunchtime, Ashley had already told her practically everything about the school.
Which teachers were strict.
Which cafeteria meals were terrible.
Which students to avoid.
And then she mentioned the Croft brothers.
“You see those two?”
Ashley pointed across the cafeteria.
Debs followed her gaze.
Two boys sat at a table near the windows.
The older one was quietly reading something on his phone.
The younger one was laughing with a group of students.
“John and Matt Croft,” Ashley whispered.
“What about them?”
Ashley lowered her voice.
“They're from Croft House.”
Debs frowned.
“So?”
Ashley looked at her like she had just asked the strangest question in the world.
“Everyone knows about Croft House.”
“Well, I don't.”
Ashley leaned closer.
“There's a reason nobody goes there.”
Before Debs could ask why, someone walked past their table.
It was John Croft.
For a moment, his eyes met Debs'.
He stopped.
His expression changed.
Not fear.
Not surprise.
Something else.
Recognition.
Debs frowned.
John quickly looked away and continued walking.
“Okay,” Debs said. “That was weird.”
Ashley nodded.
“Very.”
After school, Debs stayed behind for English.
Mrs. Smith had asked her to collect some old books from the storage room.
The room was dusty and filled with shelves.
Debs began searching.
After a few minutes, she found a pile of old English textbooks.
As she pulled one from the shelf, something slipped from between the pages.
A photograph.
Debs picked it up.
It was old and slightly faded.
There were five people standing in front of a large house.
She recognized two immediately.
John Croft.
Matt Croft.
Debs stared at the photograph.
Then she saw the third person.
Mrs. Smith.
Her heart skipped.
Why would her teacher be standing with the Croft brothers in an old photograph?
But then Debs noticed the fourth person.
A girl.
She looked almost exactly like her.
Same eyes.
Same smile.
Same small mark above her eyebrow.
Debs turned the photograph over.
There was a handwritten sentence on the back.
“Some secrets don't stay buried.”
Underneath it was a date.
September 16, 2006.
Debs' birthday.
Her hands suddenly felt cold.
She looked at the photograph again.
The girl standing beside John and Matt looked exactly like her.
Impossible.
Debs was born years after the photograph was taken.
A noise suddenly came from behind her.
She turned.
John Croft was standing in the doorway.
His eyes went straight to the photograph in her hand.
For several seconds, neither of them spoke.
Then John quietly said:
“Where did you find that?”
Debs swallowed.
“Why?”
John stepped into the room and closed the door behind him.
“Because,” he said, “you were never supposed to see it.”
