“It wasn’t.”

“Please at least meet your family. See if you like them.”

“If I don’t like them, can Ms. Danner be my guardian?”

“I suppose that’s a possibility.”

“It is?”

“Please shower and get dressed.”

Raven was dizzy from lying in bed and not eating for two days, but the thought of Jackie’s mother being her guardian gave her new strength. She did everything her aunt asked, even drank a glass of green slush that was supposed to give her energy.

A limousine took them to see the detective. Jonah was already there. Two detectives, a man and a woman, wanted to talk to Raven alone. They asked a lot of questions about Mama. Raven could tell they hated her. The green drink still felt thick and cold inside her stomach, and she was afraid she would vomit. When they asked what she knew about Audrey Lind’s death, Raven started crying and couldn’t stop.

They took her back to her aunt and Jonah. But they immediately brought Sondra into the room, leaving Raven alone with Jonah.

“I hear you lived in a log house out in the country,” he said. “That must have been great.”

“I live in a log house,” she said. “I own it, and I’m going back as soon as I can.”

A few minutes later, he spoke again. “Your brothers are excited to see you. Their names are River and Jasper. They’re twins, a little more than four years older than you.”

Raven looked away to let him know she had no interest in his sons. Jonah didn’t say more.

Aunt Sondra returned looking almost as upset as Raven felt when she came out of the room. She asked Raven, “Do you want me to come with you to Jonah’s house, or do you prefer to go alone?”

“I want you to come.”

“I think that’s better, too.”

Aunt Sondra asked the limousine driver to follow Jonah’s car. The drive was long. To the “suburbs,” Jonah had said.

Jonah’s house was big with lots of mowed lawn around it. There were a few trees and bushes that were trimmed to look like shapes from a geometry book. As they walked to the front door, Jonah looked tense, just like Raven felt.

Two young men and an elderly woman were waiting inside the door. The men looked like their father, one more so than the other. That one had blue eyes. His name was Jasper. The other, River, had more blue-gray eyes, and his skin was a little tanner like Raven’s.

The elderly woman was very thin, her blue gaze as sharp as a hunting hawk’s. Her hair was brown streaked with gold, obviously dyed. Her face unsettled Raven because it looked too smooth for her age. She’d probably had surgery to make it look like that. Jonah introduced her to Raven as her grandmother, Gram Bauhammer. Aunt Sondra called her Mary Carol and shook her hand as if she’d met her before.

“This is Raven, as she prefers to be called,” Jonah said.

River smirked. Raven immediately disliked him and his mocking expression.

“Nonsense,” Gram Bauhammer said, coming toward Raven with open arms. “She’s our dear Viola come back to us. She’ll soon get used to her name.”

Raven backed away from her. “If you call me Viola, I won’t answer.”

River snorted. Jasper looked amused, too, but hid it better.

“And I haven’t come back to you,” Raven said. “I’m only visiting. I’m going to live in Washington at my house.”

Aunt Sondra said, “Raven—”

“Let’s not discuss this now,” Jonah interrupted. “I’d like to show Raven around.”

Jonah took Raven all through the house. Jasper joined while the others sat in the living room.

Upstairs, Jonah took her in a room with a huge TV on the wall. “This was the nursery. First for the boys, then for you.”

“It used to be light blue,” Jasper said, “with birds and wildflowers on the walls. And clouds on the ceiling. Our mother painted them.”

Raven couldn’t imagine she’d ever been in that room. Or in the house at all. She didn’t like its style. It felt too sterile and fancy, very unlike the natural-wood spaces of her log home. And the views out the windows were of lawns, houses, and a road. She wouldn’t want to live in a home that didn’t look upon woods and fields.

They went back to the living room, and Raven sat on the couch with her aunt. The others faced them.

“Your aunt tells me you do very well in school,” Jonah said, trying to fill the awkward silence.

“I won’t if I don’t get back to my classes soon,” Raven said.

Again, both boys smiled, River’s grin more open than his brother’s.

“We’ll work that out,” Aunt Sondra said. “Don’t worry about it.”

“What year are you in?” Jasper asked.

“Sophomore,” she said.

“What’s your favorite subject?”

Did he really care, or was it filler talk?

“I like English and biology,” she said.

He nodded. “I go to Cornell, where our mom and dad met. I’m premed majoring in biology.”

Raven had nothing to say, and the uneasy silence returned.

“I guess it’s my turn,” River said. “I’m a community college dropout majoring in . . .” He winked at Raven and held up his glass as if to toast.