Read The Other Side of Envy: The Ghost Bird Series: #8 (The Academy) for Free Online Page A

The costs must be great and adding up every moment. I tried to forget about it for now. “But she’s asking for Marie.”
    “We’d like to see if you could talk to her, though,” he said quietly.
    I gazed down at the mocha, looking at the ice through the glass. This felt like he was asking me to fulfill some family obligation. I ought to see her because she was the stepmother I’d grown up with and that should mean something. I should have been asking to see her before now, and possibly insisting Marie and I go. It wasn’t my stepmother’s fault she was the way she was. She’d done horrible things to me but she was ill.
    I wanted to say this, but I couldn’t. In some way, after she’d gone, and especially since moving out of the house, I hadn’t been sure if I’d see her again. In small ways, the boys told me I wouldn’t. Some of them may have been unsure about wanting me to join the Academy, but all of them wanted me to stay, in one form or another, with them.
    Our breakfast came out then. The waiter placed my yogurt and fruit on the table, followed by Mr. Blackbourne’s omelet with spinach, tomato and mushrooms. Now that I’d smelled egg, though, I was hungry for it. Still, my stomach probably couldn’t take much more than a bite or two.
    The waiter nodded politely to us and then moved on.
    I focused on the yogurt, grapes, strawberries and granola in front of me. I mimicked Mr. Blackbourne, unfolding the napkin, placing it in my lap.
    Mr. Blackbourne took a couple of bites and touched his napkin to his lips before he continued speaking. “The reason I’m asking you to talk to her is actually for our own purposes. Otherwise I wouldn’t ask you to do it. There’s no need to see her again after this unless you wish to.”
    I lifted my head and his gaze held mine. “Do you need something?” I asked.
    “We’ve been having some trouble,” he said. “It’s what I’ve been meaning to talk to you about.”
    My eyebrows shifted and I put my spoon down, waiting.
    Suddenly his eyes dropped to his food. He placed his silverware down quietly.
    This was it. This was the heavy weight he’d carried since we’d sat down.
    “I hope you’ll forgive me for interfering,” he said. He picked up his head and the silver in his eyes sparked. “We’ve been investigating your father and your mother...your real mother.”
    The restaurant quieted then, or it was my own silence inside me, as my heart paused and I couldn’t breathe. I stared at him, disbelieving. My real mother was someone I tried to think about, but because of the activity around us, couldn’t. Sometimes at night though, I wondered about who I was, and who she was, and how all this had happened. I wondered how my life would have been different if I’d grown up with her.
    The questions were too much to consider, and I often tucked them away, thinking instead of the boys, of school, of the current situations and the future of the Academy, instead of a past I had no clue about, and of things I couldn’t change.
    “Did you find her?” I asked.
    He shook his head. “No,” he said. “That’s the problem. We’re unsure where to start. We traced back through your hometown for deaths around the time you were born, but no one stands out as being a possibility. Either she’s in a surrounding town, which might take a lot of time to track down, or we’re missing a clue. It’d be helpful if we could gather a hint from your stepmother.”
    I obviously didn’t come from nowhere, but the way he said it made it feel like I had. “My father didn’t mention her name.”
    “We’ve tried different ways to approach him, but we don’t want him getting curious about you and coming back too soon. We didn’t want to alarm him by asking about her and have him make rash decisions.”
    Too soon? If he came back, I suspected he’d want me to move back in with my sister. They didn’t want that. I didn’t want it.
    “The only person we’re aware of that might