The Most Wonderful Crime of the Year

by Ally Carter

remember the panic attack. You were so nice, and I should have remembered—” “It’s okay. Really.” “Was that the year they told us Eleanor might be there? I was so mad because—you know how the security desk has to print those little stickers? Well, that year, mine had the wrong name on it and I spent the whole night thinking I was going to have to change my name to—” She remembered the word but she forgot how to speak and the silence that followed was deafening, full of flying sparks and crackling logs and snow falling in clumps off the rooftop. And then a deep voice whispered, “Marcie.” She covered her mouth but the gasp came out anyway, almost echoing in the silence. He tucked her hair behind her ear. “All this time, I thought you knew. I thought we had an inside joke.” “Oh, Ethan—” “If I’d known you didn’t remember . . . I never meant to hurt you. The last thing I would ever do is hurt you.” The words were almost as hard as the look in his eyes. “I will never hurt you.”