Nell stayed at the top of the steps.

She didn't wave or call out. She just stood there, arms folded, posture loose and watchful, like a guard dog that hadn't decided if I was part of the property yet. I took a single glance back and saw that Ethan had joined her. She glared at him, but his eyes remained fixed on me, even if his expression was neutral.

Heat rushed up my cheeks and along the back of my neck. I turned away sharply, my steps quickening.

I could feel both of their gazes all the way to the car.

The door clicked shut behind me, sealing me in with Dad and, mercifully, cutting off the dozens of eyes that still occasionally fluttered in my direction, as if deliberately trying to be less obvious. I exhaled slowly, forcing my pulse to settle before Dad could comment on it.

"So, how was the first day?" he asked.

His fingers tapped an uneven rhythm on the steering wheel. He kept his voice calm, but his shoulders were tense beneath the faded flannel. The muscles along his jaw jumped.

"Okay, I guess," I said. The lie tasted bitter, but the hopeful glint in his eyes made the full truth impossible to voice.

"Just okay?" His brow twitched upward, too precise, too sharp. Little tells I kept cataloguing and pretending not to notice.

"Yeah." I turned toward the window, watching the last stragglers drift away. "It was… different."

Dad's nostrils flared, barely. "You seem upset."

I whipped my head around. "What is that supposed to mean?"

He held my gaze for a long moment, warm brown eyes, so much like mine, scanning my face. Whatever he saw there made his grip on the wheel tighten until the leather creaked.

"Did anyone harm you?" His voice was lower now. "Threaten you? Or…" His tone dropped another notch, something rough scraping underneath.

"Dad," I cut in sharply, before whatever that was could surface. "I am fine. Really. It is just…" I waved a hand toward the school. "First day in a new high school. Bit of an adjustment."

He did not look convinced, but his shoulders loosened a fraction. He put the car in gear and pulled out of the parking lot.

We drove in tense silence for a full minute, the tires humming on the road, before my empty stomach twisted. There was no sound, just a sensation, so I was surprised when he turned to look at me.

"Are you hungry? Did you eat?"

I stiffened. There was no way he… It was just a coincidence. "No. There was this… stew."

Just remembering it made my stomach roll. Greasy broth, pink meat, the smell of iron and wet dog food.

"It was basically raw," I said. "And the smell… I could not."

To my surprise, Dad barked out a laugh, sharp and startled. "They are still serving that? That stew has been on the menu since I was in school."

My mouth fell open. "Wait, that is an everyday thing? They don't serve anything else?"

He shrugged, the smile fading. "There are other options." A pause. "Sometimes."

He glanced at me, really looked, and whatever he saw there softened his expression at the edges.

"But you are right," he added. "You need more than that. I will pack you a lunch tomorrow."

Tomorrow.

The word lodged like a stone in my chest. My fingers clenched around the bag in my lap until my knuckles hurt. The thought of walking back into that building filled with stares and wrongness made my skin crawl.

"What?" he asked quietly. "Why that face?"

I swallowed. "Nothing. I am just tired."

The lie hung between us.

Dad let it sit for a moment, then cleared his throat. "I heard Nell walked you through your first day," he said, too casually.

There it was.

I stared at the road ahead. "Oh, she walked me, all right." I turned fully toward him, my voice cooling. "Thanks to you. And your incessant need to control every aspect of my life."

The words came out harsher than I intended.

Dad's fingers tightened around the wheel again. "Jason and I talked," he said carefully. "Nell is… reliable."

I snapped. "Did I even ask you to talk to him? Why are you letting this guy, whoever he is, and I don't care if he is the boss of the universe, run our lives around here?"

His eyes flashed, jaw tightening. "Kelsey." His voice was lower now, dangerously low. "You speak of things you don't understand."

"Well, explain them to me, then."

Nothing.

The anger that had simmered all day finally boiled over. "You are unbelievable, you know that? You moved me to the middle of nowhere without asking, shoved me into a school full of people who act like I carry Ebola or something, and then you arrange me a babysitter. Who is younger than me."

"She is two years younger," he said. "That is hardly-"

"That is exactly the point," I shot back. "Do you have any idea how humiliating that is? Everyone saw her glued to me. They know she was following me. They know I…" My throat closed on the last word.

Needed her.

Dad inhaled slowly through his nose. "Is that what this is about? Your pride?"

"My what?" I stared at him. "No. This is about you making decisions about my life behind my back. Again."

He flinched, barely. It was small, but I saw it.

The car rolled through the edge of town, past sagging houses and dim windows, past the same rusted sign that had greeted us when we arrived. The forest waited beyond, dark and patient.

"Nell was not there to embarrass you," Dad said finally. "She was there to keep you safe."

"Safe from what?" I asked. The question burst out raw and loud. "Because nobody touched me. Nobody said anything you could put in a complaint. They just stared and smiled and… breathed. Weird. Wrong. I don't know."

My throat burned. I rubbed my palms on my jeans. There were no words to describe exactly why I was so upset. At this point, I sounded ridiculous even to myself.

"These kids. They are just…" He searched for a word. "Different."

"So am I," I said. "Apparently."

Silence settled between us again. The engine hummed. Trees blurred past, branches clawing at the sky. I could not stand it. I reached out and turned on the radio. Deep beats of Rag'n'Bone broke the silence.

"Did Nell say anything?" Dad asked, his tone careful. "Did she… explain?"

I let out a humorless breath. "She explained nothing. She told me where to sit and when to move and to lower my voice. Like I am a toddler."

"She didn't hurt you," he said quickly.

"No," I admitted. A reluctant truth. "She helped," I said, quieter. "When some girl decided to play queen of the hallway."

Dad's head turned a fraction. "What girl?"

"Redhead, too much mascara," I said. "She cornered me after math. Started with the usual new-girl crap, then decided to get close enough to count my pores and give me some weird pep talk."

Dad's fingers flexed on the wheel, his nostrils flaring. "Did she touch you?"

"No," I said. "Nell handled it. Sort of. And then…" I hesitated.

"And then what?" Dad pressed.

I chewed the inside of my cheek, staring at the road. This was the part I did not know how to phrase without making it sound bigger than it was.

"And then this guy showed up," I said. "Nell's brother."

Dad went very, very still. Immovable, except for his hands, which clenched the wheel so hard I wondered if it would crack.

"He spoke to you?" he asked.

"Yeah," I said. "Both of them did. Repeatedly. Because you apparently made it their job."

Dad's jaw muscles stood out beneath his stubble. "What did he say?"

I stared at him. "Wow. Subtle."

"Kelsey."

"Relax," I said, even though nothing about this was relaxing. "He told the redhead to move. That is it."

Dad did not look relaxed. If anything, he looked worse.

"You are to stay away from him," Dad said, his tone clipped.

I scoffed. "Excuse me?"

"Nell is one thing. She is there to help you fit in. But getting involved with him could get you into serious trouble."

"What kind of trouble?"

The muscle in his jaw twitched, but he remained silent.

A nasty, bitter laugh bubbled up in my chest. "You realize that is impossible, right? He is in my math class. He sat at my table at lunch. He is everywhere."

Dad's grip tightened. "Then you keep it polite and distant. No long conversations. No going off alone. No woods. No cars. No…" He cut himself off.

"No what?" I demanded. "No breathing in his general direction? No thinking about him without written permission?"

"This is not a joke," he said. His voice hit a note I'd never heard before, somewhere between anger and panic.

I fell quiet.

Not because I agreed, but because I'd never heard my father sound scared.

"He is Jason's son," Dad said after a moment, as if that explained everything.

"What does that even mean?" I asked.

Dad pulled in a slow breath, then let it out. The lines around his eyes looked deeper.

"It means," he said, "that he lives by rules you do not understand. Rules that will not bend for you just because you are mine." He paused."And neither of us gets to decide what happens when those rules are broken."

The words landed in my gut like stones.

"So your solution is what?" I said. "Hide me behind his sister like I don't exist?"

"Don't talk like that," he snapped.

"Then why do you refuse to explain what is going on?" I shot back. "You brought me into a town where everyone acts like I am diseased, and the only thing you give me is a teenage bodyguard and a list of don'ts."

"That is not fair," he said quietly.

"What part of what you did to me is fair?"

He didn't answer.

The road narrowed into the familiar forest stretch, trees crowding close, branches knitting overhead until the sky was just a strip of pale grey. The same road that had felt like a reprieve now felt more like a noose.

"It is not that I don't appreciate Nell," I said after a while, my voice softer. The admission felt like sand in my mouth.

Dad glanced at me, relief flickering in his eyes.

"But it would've been nice to know," I added. "Instead of finding out when she just appeared at my elbow like a secret service agent."

"I was going to tell you," Dad said.

"When?" I asked. "Before graduation?"

He winced. "Last night. But you fell asleep before I could."

"Right," I said. "Convenient."

We fell into silence again. The house at the edge of the woods waited somewhere ahead, pale and patient.

"Look," Dad said eventually. "I know this feels wrong. I know it feels like I threw you in without warning. But this is not like it was back home. You cannot just wander here."

"So I've heard," I muttered.

"I am serious," he said. "If you are in school, you stay where there are people. If you are outside, you stay where Nell can see you. If anything feels off, you call me."

"Nothing feels on," I said.

He let out a tired breath. "Kelsey."

"What?" I said. "You keep telling me I'm safe, then act like I'm going to get kidnapped between chemistry and lunch."

His silence said more than any answer.

The car turned onto the gravel road leading to the house. The trees parted. The two-story structure emerged from the gloom, paint peeling, porch sagging, barn looming behind it like a darker shadow.

My life was a horror movie. I did not know if I should laugh or cry.

"Rules here exist for a reason," Dad said quietly as he pulled to a stop. "I'm not asking you to like them. I'm asking you to follow them."

I stared at the house, at the faint light in one of the upstairs windows, at the forest pressing in behind it.

My fingers twitched. "Just as long as I'm not asking questions, right?"

He looked at me then, really looked, and for a second the careful walls on his face slipped. I saw grief there. Guilt. Fear so sharp it almost looked like anger.

For a heartbeat, neither of us moved.

Then he reached for the door handle.

"Come on," he said. "Your grandmother will have dinner ready."

The idea of food, their food, made my stomach twist, but I unbuckled my seatbelt anyway. My legs felt like they belonged to someone else.

As I stepped out of the car, the wind rushed through the clearing, carrying the scent of pine and damp earth. The porch light flickered. Dark trees behind the house held their silence like a secret.

I wrapped my arms around myself and followed Dad toward the house, every nerve in my body screaming the same thing.

Whatever he was trying to protect me from, it was already here.