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stomping down the hallway toward us, his eyes burning.
    â€œWas she trying to run away?” he said accusingly to my father, and then he glared at me. “I knew you were in on this.”
    â€œI’ll handle it from here, Paul,” my dad told him, and pressed his hand against Paul’s chest, warning him to back off.
    â€œWe need to question her, Kevin. She’s a number one suspect for this,” he said.
    â€œI said I would handle her,” my dad ordered. Paul looked between us and stalked through the stage door. One of the event staff stood in the doorway and motioned for my dad to come inside.
    I glanced through the open door into a room lit under bright fluorescent lights and saw Paul and Damon standing inside with a cluster of reporters and a few cops. Paul glared again in my direction. My father told the worker we needed a few minutes, and he nodded and shut the door.
    My dad turned to me. A long sigh told me he was fighting to stay calm.
    â€œYour sworn oath to never communicate with Justin Solvi lasted a whole two days,” he grumbled.
    â€œI had nothing to do with this, if that’s what you’re wondering.” My eyes were steady on his.
    He leaned his head to one side and regarded me. “Yet, you somehow knew Justin would be right outside those doors? It doesn’t add up, Maddie.”
    That’s because people are more than numbers on a chart,
I wanted to say. “I haven’t done anything wrong,” I insisted.
    â€œI let the dress go, and your obnoxious hair, and your defiant attitude in general, but this is getting ridiculous. Do you want me to send you to prison? Is that what you want?”
    â€œI want you to stop treating me like a wild animal. You treat me like I’m some kind of a leopard that needs to be caged. So I’m going to play the part. Start taking me seriously, Dad, and maybe I’ll stop acting out.”
    He mulled this over, as if he was just realizing this was the case. We were interrupted when the stage door swung open and the same staff worker stepped out and gave my dad a nervous glance. He cleared his throat.
    â€œMr. Freeman, sir, we can’t find the benefit video. It appears to have been deleted.” My dad nodded quickly to him and motioned for the guards, who were waiting at the end of the hall.
    â€œEscort her back to the dining room,” he ordered them, “and make sure she stays there.” His eyes dug into mine. “You are not to leave your seat the rest of this evening,” he said, and turned to the stage door.
    I followed the guards back to the table, empty now except for Becky, sitting all alone in the circular space and staring into her phone. I felt eyes stick to me as I walked. The entire room watched the procession, and I could already hear the whispers, but I kept my eyes focused straight ahead at the table.
    Overhead music snapped on, which was a relief from the hum of gossip.
    One guard sat down next to me, and the other guard backed away and stood against the wall closest to our table.
    I chewed on my nails, annoyed that I would be blamed for this, but even more annoyed at Justin’s words. Scott was right; I should have waited to talk to him before I left Eden. Of course it looked like I was leaving him. I needed to talk to him, the one person I was forbidden to communicate with.
    I watched Becky and waited for her to look up from her phone screen. Her head was down, her eyes fixed, like they were connected to the glowing pixels.
    â€œBecky,” I said.
    â€œHm?” she mumbled.
    â€œHow long have you been working with the DS Dropouts?” I didn’t care if the guard next to me heard. If they were friends with Justin, they’d probably known what was happening tonight.
    Her eyes stopped scanning the screen, and she pulled out an earpod and looked at me. “What?”
    â€œI think you heard me,” I said. She blinked for a few seconds,