"Veronica!"

Mom moves on the bed behind me and I open one eye to look at the clock. 10:27 a.m. Ugh. Why does it still feel like 4:15?

"VERONICA!"

"What the…" Mom shuffles, half-asleep, to the open bedroom door and walks through.

As I slide out of bed, I see Dad meet her, looking just as rough as she looks, rubbing his eyes and yawning. They nod to each other and continue on down the hall to see who's calling her.

When I get to the bedroom doorway, they are standing together at the top of the stairs, looking down into the entryway and I suddenly realize who it is yelling for Mom.

"Oh, I'm sorry. Did I wake the lovebirds?" His voice echoes clear and loud upstairs and I sigh.

Ugh. STOSH. Why is he here?

"Excuse me?!" Mom starts to walk downstairs and Dad waits a second for her to go first before he follows. "What exactly are you insinuating, Piz?"

I'm so tired that I just naturally follow them down, a little ways behind Dad. Stosh is standing in the middle of the entryway, dressed in khakis and a Polo shirt and Grandpa is just inside the front door, dressed for the day as well, his arms crossed, shaking his head at Stosh. Grandpa must have been the one who let him in, since he has a key and knows all the codes to the mansion.

Stosh's arms flail in our direction and his purple and blue face is accentuated with the deep red of anger. I stop near the bottom of the stairs, but Mom charges across the room to him. Dad hangs back at the foot of the stairs, scratching at his stubble and yawning.

"I'm not insinuating! I'm calling out the fact that you came over here in the middle of the night to sleep with your ex-husband!"

I gasp and then quickly bite my lip, looking between Mom and Dad. Okay...I mean...in Stosh's defence, Dad is kinda standing there half naked, unshaven, looking like he hasn't slept all night, in only his sweatpants. And Mom is about the same in her little shorts, t-shirt, and crazy bed-head hair.

"What?!" Mom yells. "I didn't sleep with Logan last night! I was with my children! So was he!"

"So you're telling me, you left our bed in the middle of the night, without telling me, to come over here and deal with your ten-year-old kids?" Stosh points at me and I feel my whole body go red with embarrassment.

"I came here to deal with my family !" she yells back.

I glance at Dad and he has a look on his face like he's trying not to smile. He scratches his abs and yawns again, as if he's enjoying watching Mom yell at someone other than him.

"Oh, and what lies did your children tell you last night to get you to come over here?" Stosh hisses and my mouth drops open in shock.

"What?" Mom roars at him.

"Come on, Veronica! You can't really be so blind that you can't see what's been going on." Stosh walks past her toward me and I freeze in horror. "How your kids have concocted some plan to get you and Logan back together."

Oh. Shit.

I glance up the stairs, hoping to see Phin there, but when I don't see him, I silently curse my brother. He probably heard the accusations and is already hiding, leaving me to take the fall. Damn him.

"Plan?" I stammer. "What plan?"

"Piz, there is no plan !" Mom gasps, exasperated.

I look past Mom to Grandpa and he looks away, as if he's being accused too. When I look at Dad, his face is neutral, like he's trying not to give me away.

Stosh pivots away from me and back to Mom, scoffing at her.

"Are you kidding me, Veronica? Are you really that blind to your own children's behavior that you can't see it?"

Mom folds her arms over her chest and narrows her eyes at him, raising one eyebrow and pushing her hip to one side ever so slightly, and my heart stops because I've seen that look before. It's the look she gives a person before she goes nuclear on them. I saw it when she took out Doreen Schultz's mom.

"How am I blind to my own children , Piz? Please. Enlighten me. Enlighten us all."

I shiver. Now she has "the tone." I look over at Dad and his jaw is twitching because he's trying so hard to hold back a smile.

"You haven't noticed how your children ignored me the entire flight across the country, but then, when we get here…" He gestures at Dad and that's when Dad's smirk breaks through. "...they suddenly want us all to spend time together like one big happy family?"

Mom looks up at me quickly and my heart stops. Busted. But to my surprise, she just looks back to Stosh without saying a word.

"And at the zoo...with them trying to get in between us the entire time. And then at the pool party, when your ex-husband changed into that….well...obscene swimsuit, which was clearly to provoke some sort of reaction from you, because your eyes nearly fell out of your head when he did it."

"Point of order, your honour..." Dad raises his finger to get their attention and points to his obviously flexing chest muscles. "I don't work out every day to keep this under wraps."

I stifle a guffaw. Stosh opens his mouth to say something but Mom beats him to it.

"Not helping, Logan."

"Okay then…" Dad shuffles over to lean against the stairwell post, crossing his arms. "Continue."

Stosh seems to take that as his cue and begins laying into Mom again, oblivious to the fact that he should have taken his own and just shut up.

"And then Christmas Eve, when they so obviously convinced your father to take that trip down memory lane." He points at Grandpa and Grandpa just stares at him, dead in the eye, but makes no move to give away his hand. "I mean, God knows what happened while you were here on New Year's Eve while I was working…"

"That's enough!" Mom yells and raises her finger to Stosh. "First, there is no 'plan' Piz. Everyone has just tried to be welcoming to you—including my ex-husband—in an attempt to be supportive of me."

She pauses long enough to take a breath and Stosh opens his mouth to interrupt but she raises another finger, closer to his face, and he zips his lips pretty quick. "Second, you were the one who chose, at the pool party, to spend most of your time fawning over—Lord help me—Dick Casablancas of all people, and ignoring me. Until I had to drag you away to introduce you to my other friends."

Stosh starts to sputter at the mention of Uncle D, but when Mom raises one more finger at him he shuts up again. "Third, this is everyone just being themselves, that is it. My dad is a doting grandfather who loves his grandkids, my kids are caring and inclusive, and yes, even Logan is sometimes too nice for his own good, even if you don't see it as such."

Another finger goes up and at least Stosh knows not to interrupt her this time. "Fourth, if my father wants to show everyone pictures of my children from when they were little, so you can get to know them better as well, in his own home—a home that he welcomed you into, I might add—then he has every right."

Mom steps right up to Piz and my heart kicks into high gear because I know she's about to take the kill-shot. "And finally, you are the one who left me on New Year's Eve to follow your little bro-mance to the beach, so don't you dare accuse me of anything that did or did not happen while you weren't around."

Damn, she's a good lawyer.

"She really is a good lawyer, isn't she?" Dad whispers, a little too loudly, up to me and I can't help but giggle.

Stosh whips around to Dad, turning his back on Mom and now I think, from the way she looks at the back of his head, that she may physically hurt him.

"And what about last night? What was so important with the kids that you needed to sneak out of bed, take my rental car, and drive over here while I was asleep?"

Dad stands straight and puffs up his chest, crossing his arms over it. "Phin was upset about something. I texted Veronica to come and help me calm him down. She happened to be awake so she came over."

Oh my God! Dad's covering for her! And she covered for him! This is huge!

Stosh turns back to Mom. "And after you calmed him down? How did you calm down , Veronica?"

The sound of Mom's hand slapping Stosh's cheek reverberates in the space and I cringe, recoiling a bit at the imagined sensation of being struck. I look over at Dad and he's cringing as well. I don't know what Stosh meant, but whatever it was, it wasn't good.

Stosh groans in agony, gripping his cheek, and Mom glares up at him, beyond angry. "How dare you show up here, and accuse me of sleeping with Logan while I'm engaged to you!"

In a quick motion, Mom pulls off her engagement ring, grabs Stosh's wrist and shoves the ring into his grasp. "There. Now we're not engaged. Does that work for you instead?"

Wait? But she did kiss Dad. Or Dad kissed her. Okay, both. But it's not like they did anything more ….right? I mean, that wouldn't have happened in the house if Phin and I were here…because...ewww….

Stosh straightens. "Veronica, be reasonable…"

Storming away from Stosh, Mom runs past Dad, up the stairs past me and disappears into my room. There's an awkward silence and we all look at each other, confused as to what Mom is doing and not quite sure what to do about Stosh. Mercifully, she quickly appears again, in her flipflops and coat, her hands shoved in the pockets. She hurries past me and Dad, heading back to Stosh, holding out a set of keys.

"Here are the keys to the rental car. Take them and get out."

Stosh scoffs, shaking his head as he takes them from her. "Fine. Fine, Veronica." Walking towards the door, he continues to shake his head, as if he can't believe this is happening to him. "Have a good life." At the door, he turns and looks at us all and sighs. "Enjoy your messed up little family."

Dad steps away from the stairs, like he's going to come after Stosh, but Mom puts her hand out and blocks him with a hand against his stomach, stopping him in his tracks.

"Don't," she murmurs. "Just let him go."

We all watch Stosh slink away and I frown. Okay, he may have had a point about the messed up part, right now, but he really didn't have to say it out loud.

We're all still frozen, no one knowing quite what to say until Dad pats Mom's hand, still on his stomach, and chuckles.

"I smell that the coffee brewed this morning while we were asleep. Who wants a cup?"

Grandpa raises his hand and chuckles. "I would like one, please."

Mom slowly pulls her hand away from under Dad's, rubs her face and sighs. "Can I just put a straw in the pot?"

Dad pats her again, on the shoulder this time, and smiles. "I have extra large mugs for mornings like this."

"You have many mornings like this, do you?"

"Well, maybe not like this exactly." Dad smirks as he turns to me. "Gracie, can you go find your brother, please? I'll pour you guys a bowl of cereal and we can all talk."

"Okay Dad!" I jump with excitement and scamper upstairs to find Phin.

Running past my room, I head to his and stop at the door. It is trashed. The Death Star is smashed, and his dresser is on the floor. There are toys and clothes everywhere and I wonder how much of it was already like this and how much he destroyed with his freak-out last night? There's a lump in the bed and it looks like Dad slept next to him last night like Mom did with me, because the covers on the other side are pressed down. But he can't be asleep still, can he? How did he sleep through that? I carefully step through the rubble to the lump and shake it.

"Phin?"

When he doesn't respond, I pull back the covers to find a pillow and a bunch of clothes stuffed under, like he made a lump to resemble himself underneath. My body goes cold and I glance around the room, looking for signs of him.

"Phin?"

Crashing through the stuff, I head back out the door, towards the bathroom, and quickly knock before opening it. "Phin?"

He's not in there, so I run to Dad's room. Maybe he crawled into Dad's bed? But when I get there, the room is empty. Now, my hands start to shake. If he was hiding in the house, he wouldn't have made it look like he was still in bed. He must have done that when Dad was still asleep in there with him this morning.

Looking around the room, I groan in agony. "Ugh. Phin, you dummy. What did you do?"

My body feels heavy as I drag myself downstairs. When we find him, I'm going to kill him for leaving me to tell Mom and Dad he's missing. I'm going to kill him for not telling me where he was going. I'm going to kill him just on principle for being such a dumbass.

I get to the kitchen and stop in the doorway, looking at Grandpa and Mom, sitting across the island from Dad as they drink their coffee and Dad pours milk into three huge bowls of cereal. Mom reaches across and pulls one towards her and nods to Dad in thanks.

Dad turns and smiles at me on his way back to the fridge. "Breakfast is ready. Where's Phin."

My mouth opens but I can't get the words out. Dad must sense or see something is wrong in my face because he leaves the door of the fridge open and races to me.

"Gracie, what's wrong?"

"He's gone," I croak as Dad crouches in front of me, gripping my shoulders. "He's gone."

In a flash, Mom is at my side, kneeling next to Dad, and her hand takes mine. "What do you mean, he's gone? Gone where?"

"I...I don't know…" I gasp.

Dad cringes and takes a deep breath before speaking, slowly. "Gracie. Please don't tell me this was part of your plan."

"NO! It wasn't! Honest, Dad!" I look over at Mom and see her cheeks flush red as she realizes that Stosh may have been right about what we were up to.

"We believe you, Gracie," Mom says with surprising calmness. "How do you know he's gone and not just hiding? Did he leave a note?"

"A note?" That little fart-breath, stupid-head. He could have at least left me a note! "No. I went to find him and he stuffed his bed to look like he was sleeping next to Dad. He must have slipped out while Dad was asleep."

Dad releases me and falls back, sitting on the ground in shock. "I...I was so tired...I didn't sleep last night and then you showed up, Veronica, and then calming him down and I must have…"

Mom shifts her attention to Dad, her hand moving to his shoulder. "It's okay, Logan. I once slept straight through Phin barfing his guts out a few feet away from me. You were exhausted…"

"Yeah, but I should have felt him move or heard him…"

"Gracie, is anything taken from his room?" Grandpa asks from beside me and I shrug.

"I dunno. It's crazy in there right now. I would have to look."

"Oh God...what if…" Dad suddenly rises and starts to stagger past me. "What if he couldn't sleep. What if he went for a swim by himself and…"

Grandpa catches him, gripping his shoulders. "Don't think that way, Logan. We'll check the pool room, but you have locks and security and…"

But Dad keeps going, racing towards the room as we follow, down the hallway to the French Doors. His hands are shaking as he punches in the numbers and pulls open the door, yelling into the big, empty room.

"PHIN!"

Mom is at his side and they step hesitantly to the pool together and I freeze, watching in horror as it all plays out. He can't be in the pool. That's not possible. He's a dumbass, but he's smarter than that...I know he is. I just know.

Their eyes skim the pool and Dad clutches his heart. "He's not here. He's not here. Oh, thank God...he's not here."

Mom grabs his arm and Dad pulls her into a hug and I hear her gasp, holding back tears as Dad rocks her, his eyes still on the water.

"He's okay, Logan. He's somewhere and he's okay. We just have to find him," Mom says.

I breathe a giant sigh of relief, and so does Grandpa beside me. He puts his arm around my shoulders and I lean against him, shaking a bit from the adrenaline rush of fear. Mom is still in Dad's arms, by edge of the water, talking in low voices.

"Don't worry, Gracie," Grandpa says, kissing my head. "We'll find your brother. It's going to be okay."

"Yeah. I know, Grandpa," I mutter back.

Yep. I'm definitely going to kill my brother. When we find him, that is.