Brielle finally told Maya the truth.
“I knew about your mother.”
Maya looked at her.
“How?”
“My grandmother told me.”
“When?”
“Last summer.”
“And you said nothing?”
Brielle looked down.
“She made me promise.”
“Why?”
“Because she was sick.”
Maya said nothing.
Brielle continued.
“She told me there was one person my father couldn't trust.”
“The principal.”
“Yes.”
“Then why did you attack me in the cafeteria?”
“I didn't attack you.”
“You humiliated me.”
“I was trying to scare you away.”
Maya stared at her.
“That's supposed to make me feel better?”
“No.”
Brielle's voice cracked.
“I thought if you stopped looking, you'd stay safe.”
“You could have told me.”
“I was afraid.”
“Of your father?”
“Of everyone.”
Maya stood.
“You had every advantage in this school.”
Brielle laughed bitterly.
“You think popularity means you're safe?”
She pulled out her phone.
Then she showed Maya a video.
It was from the night before.
Daniel Hart was standing in a parking garage.
He was talking to Principal Reynolds.
Maya watched silently.
She couldn't hear every word.
But one sentence was clear.
“The ledger cannot surface.”
Reynolds answered.
“It won't.”
Then Daniel said something else.
“Not unless Brielle has already found it.”
The video ended.
Maya looked at Brielle.
“Where did you get this?”
“My grandmother left it.”
“Why didn't you show me?”
“Because there was another video.”
She opened a second file.
This one was older.
Maya's mother was standing in the same garage.
She was arguing with Reynolds.
“You can't keep doing this,” Evelyn said.
Reynolds stepped closer.
“You don't understand what happens if the truth comes out.”
“I understand exactly.”
“You'll destroy more than a foundation.”
“You already destroyed it.”
The video ended.
Maya's eyes filled with tears.
Her mother had known.
She had fought back.
And then she had died.
Maya looked at Brielle.
“Where is the original?”
“My grandmother hid it.”
“Where?”
Brielle hesitated.
Then she said:
“In the cafeteria.”
Maya almost laughed.
“That's impossible.”
“No.”
Brielle looked directly at her.
“The table where you and I fought.”
Maya remembered.
The table had a small metal plate underneath.
A number.
She had seen it a hundred times.
214.
They returned to the cafeteria after school.
The room was empty.
Maya crawled beneath the table.
There was a loose panel.
She pulled it open.
Inside was a black notebook.
Her mother's handwriting.
Maya opened it.
The first page contained a list of names.
The final name stopped her cold.
Eleanor Hart.
Underneath it was a handwritten sentence:
She didn't die because she knew too much.
She died because she was about to tell the wrong person.
Maya turned the page.
And found her own name.