Free The Lying Game by Sara Shepard

waiting. “Uh, yes?” Emma guessed.
    “We’ll take mine,” Laurel yelled from the floor above.
    Mrs. Mercer ushered Emma out into the foyer. Emma’s nose twitched with the smell of Fracas perfume. She looked deep into the woman’s eyes, trying to convey exactly who she was … and exactly who she
wasn’t.
Surely she’d recognize her own daughter, right?
    But Mrs. Mercer just pressed her hands on Emma’s shoulders. A tendon stood out in her neck. “Can you please go easy on us today? “ She shut her eyes and let out a huge sigh. “We’re throwing you a huge birthday party in two weeks. Just once can you actually earn it?”
    Emma flinched, then quickly nodded. Apparently they really
didn’t
believe her.
    Laurel thundered back down the stairs with a bunch of sports bags and purses in her arms. She pushed the T-straps Mrs. Mercer had picked out, the tennis duffel, and a buttery-leather beige purse Emma didn’t recognize into Emma’s arms. Emma peeked inside the handbag. Sutton’s blue Kate Spade wallet and pink-cased iPhone were nestled into the inside pockets. At the bottom of the bag were pens, pencils, Dior mascara, and a spanking-new iPad. Emma raised her eyebrows. At least she’d finally find out what an iPad was like.
    Mrs. Mercer opened the front door wide. “Get out of here.” Laurel strode to the porch, her car keys jingling in her hands. A silver RETURN TO TIFFANY & CO. keychain dangled from the ring. After shoving on her shoes, Emma followed. She had a feeling that if she didn’t, Mrs. Mercer would jab her out the door with the decorative rowing oar that stood in the corner of the foyer.
    As soon as Emma stepped outside, sweat beaded at herforehead. Sprinklers hissed on the lawn across the street, and little kids in plaid school uniforms waited at the corner for the bus. Laurel glared at Emma over her shoulder as she walked across the driveway, her high heels making staccato clacks. “That was a lame way to try to get out of school.” She hit a button on the keychain remote. After two short
bleeps,
a black VW Jetta under the basketball hoop unlocked. “Your long-lost twin sister? Where’d you come up with
that?”
    Emma peered across the street again. She kept hoping to see Sutton saunter down the sidewalk, ready with an apology and an explanation. Bees swarmed impassively around the flowering bushes. A landscaping truck trundled past. The mountain range glowed in the rising sun, Sabino Canyon somewhere among it.
    “Hello, space cadet?”
    Emma flinched. Laurel walked toward her again, a small white envelope in her hands. SUTTON , it said on the front in tall capital letters. “It was under my wiper.” Laurel’s voice was tinged with bitterness. “Do you have
another
secret admirer?”
    Emma considered the note for a moment. A few buds of pollen had stained the upper right corner. Should she open something that wasn’t hers? But Laurel kept staring, waiting, snapping her gum in Emma’s ear.
    Finally Emma gave Laurel a look. “Do you mind givingme a little space?” It sounded like something Sutton might say.
    Laurel sniffed and took one step away. Emma slid her finger under the flap on the envelope and pulled out a sheet of lined paper.
    Sutton’s dead. Tell no one. Keep playing along … or
you’re next.

    Emma whipped around the yard, but the morning was eerily still. The school bus grumbled to the corner and picked up the little kids. As it pulled away, its squeaky brakes sounded like screams.
    “What’s it say?” Laurel leaned over.
    Emma quickly crumpled the note in her hand. “Nothing.” Her voice was barely audible.
    Laurel’s lip curled in a snarl. Then she opened the passenger door and pointed to the seat. “Just get in.”
    Emma did as she was told, dazedly slumping into the seat and staring straight ahead. Her heart pounded so hard she was afraid it might explode.
    “You’re being so weird,” Laurel said, starting the car. “What’s wrong with you?”
    As I