Chapter Four: Adele, 2011

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"There's no way he was actually a Beta," Rose insisted. "I mean, they're definitely not saints, but none of them are killers."

Rose was sitting cross-legged on Adele's bed, clutching a pillow. All of the sorority girls had been asked to leave the sorority house while the investigators did their work, so Rose made her way across campus to the single dorm room Adele had been living in the past three years. It was small but had two bookshelves, enough room for her to arrange all of her true crime books and thrillers, which she sensed she wouldn't be revisiting any time soon. There was also a large window facing a grove of trees, a view that was hard to come by on a campus that was constantly under construction, which Denver University always seemed to be.

Adele stared out her window now, pondering Rose's words. She was right. Adele had spent the morning with Chief Parker looking at pictures of boys who'd been in the Beta fraternity over the past five years, and no one looked like the man she saw in the kitchen that morning.

Not even close.

Maybe Adele was wrong about the lettering. It was difficult to see beneath the blood, but she'd thought for sure... Chief Parker suggested perhaps the man had been in a different chapter, visiting for Homecoming, but she knew he was just being polite. What was the likelihood of that?

Adele sighed and rubbed her bloodshot eyes. "I don't know what to think anymore. None of this feels real. I keep pinching myself, trying to wake up."

Rose rubbed her shoulder. "When is your mom getting here?"

"Couple hours, I think. She jumped in the car while I was literally still on the phone with her."

Despite the situation, Adele smiled. Her mom had always been a bit of a worry wart, but in this case she was glad that her mom was ready to drop everything and come to her aid. Adele didn't think she even packed anything. She mentioned being able to buy a toothbrush at Walmart.

"And your dad?"

"He's going to try to get here tomorrow. He said the project still had a few details to iron out."

Adele's father was basically the opposite of her mother. When she was little, she'd go with them to the park and her dad would push her as high on the swings as he possibly could while she squealed in delight. Her mother would stand close by, watching with those hawk eyes, her purse firmly tucked under her arm so she'd have immediate access to the first aid kit she brought along in case Adele happened to fall and scratch her knee.

When she was little, those differences didn't seem to matter so much. In fact, her parents seemed to balance each other out. The careless way her father chased a good time. Her mom always around to clean up his messes. But somewhere along the way her father's recklessness got to be too much for her mom. Adele thought he was spending a little too much time with one of his colleagues, a woman whom she'd once heard him laughingly refer to as his work wife.

That's life, though. At least that's how they explained it to Adele when she was nine. People fell in love, and sometimes they fell out. Not that they didn't still care about each other. Of course they did. It's just now they lived in different places and never talked to one another, unless it was about Adele. Actually, this was the first time they'd see each other since Adele's high school graduation. She had always thought the next time would be when she walked the stage to pick up her diploma for her "useless lit degree" (in the words of her father).

Turns out, she was wrong.

Rose traced circles on Adele's pillow with her perfectly polished index finger. "I can't stop thinking about her." She looked up, her face pale. "I'm sorry. That was insensitive. I don't have any right to be--"

Adele raised her hand to stop Rose from apologizing. "You have as much right to be grieving as anyone in this situation. After all, you knew Marie better than I did."

"It's just--" Rose broke off and covered her face with her hands. "She was so excited to have made it. She kept asking me what to expect. And I couldn't tell her. You know, the ceremony's a secret." Rose's shoulders shook as she sobbed.

"Rose," Adele whispered. "You didn't do anything wrong."

It was true. She hadn't. But Adele couldn't help thinking if there had been a little more transparency about the process, Marie might still be alive. When Rose went through it all their freshman year, Adele was jealous. Rose got to be "kidnapped" from her dorm room and taken to breakfast the morning of Homecoming. Adele heard all about it later, how the seniors took the freshmen around town, snapping pictures of them in their pajamas, laughing and posting them on Instagram. There was a secret ritual that night where the girls were blindfolded and had to swear loyalty to the sorority, promise to support their sisters forever, wherever their lives took them.

Marie most likely thought she was going to experience something similar. She was probably jittery with excitement as she walked down those stairs, expecting all of her new sisters to be there waiting for her.

But all that awaited her was death.

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