"It wasn't me, son."
Ethan's father's hand slipped from his wrist.
His body hit the ground.
And for a moment...
Nobody moved.
Nobody breathed.
The forest became terrifyingly quiet.
Then chaos erupted.
"Call an ambulance!" Vanessa screamed.
Ethan dropped to his knees.
"Dad!"
There was no response.
Only silence.
And blood.
A lot of blood.
Lucas was already scanning the woods.
Looking for the shooter.
But whoever fired that shot was gone.
Vanished.
Like a ghost.
Then I noticed something.
Ethan's father was still clutching something in his hand.
A piece of paper.
Folded tightly.
As though he had been holding it for years.
I reached for it.
Slowly.
Carefully.
And pulled it free.
"What is it?" Lucas asked.
I unfolded it.
The paper was old.
Very old.
Yellow with age.
The date at the top made my heart skip.
July 17, 2007.
The night Lucas disappeared.
The night everything changed.
My eyes moved lower.
Then I froze.
Because the paper wasn't a confession.
It was a letter.
Written by Ethan's father.
Addressed to someone named...
Margaret.
Vanessa gasped.
"My grandmother."
Lucas looked stunned.
Ethan looked confused.
I continued reading.
The words grew shakier toward the end.
As though they had been written by a frightened man.
A guilty man.
A man who knew something terrible was about to happen.
Then I reached the final paragraph.
And everything changed.
"If anything happens to me, know that Richard Blackwood is the one who ordered it."
Silence.
Absolute silence.
Nobody spoke.
Because we all knew one thing.
Richard Blackwood wasn't Ethan's father.
He wasn't Vanessa's grandfather.
He wasn't anyone we'd talked about before.
Yet somehow...
His name was important enough to make a grown man fear for his life.
Lucas took the letter from my shaking hands.
His face went pale.
"No."
"What?" Ethan asked.
Lucas looked terrified.
Actually terrified.
"I know that name."
My stomach dropped.
"Who is he?"
Lucas swallowed hard.
Then answered.
"The owner of the camp."
The wind suddenly felt colder.
The abandoned cabins.
The secret meetings.
The lake.
The missing evidence.
The letters.
The shooting.
Everything connected back to one place.
Summer Camp Aurora.
And apparently...
One man.
Then Ethan looked at Lucas.
"If this Richard guy was behind everything..."
He hesitated.
"Why send us letters?"
Lucas didn't answer immediately.
Instead, he looked toward the lake.
Toward the place where his childhood ended.
Then he whispered:
"Because he didn't send them."
My heart raced.
"What do you mean?"
Lucas slowly reached into his jacket.
And pulled out a final envelope.
One he had never shown us before.
One sealed for twenty years.
Written across the front were four words.
Open When We Reunite.
My breath caught.
The handwriting was familiar.
Painfully familiar.
Not Ethan's.
Not Lucas's.
Not Vanessa's.
Mine.

How is that possible?
A. Maya wrote it as a child.
B. Someone forged her handwriting.
C. Maya forgot something important.
D. Maya is connected to the mystery more than anyone realizes.