He sees patterns everywhere. In cracked walls. In failing systems. In the building collapse that killed his cousin four years ago.
For four years, Terrence Lyle has documented every structural weakness, every maintenance failure, every warning sign that others ignore. He's predicted twelve building failures. Nine happened exactly as he said they would.
When he predicts a system failure at his school forty-six minutes before it occurs, he expects the usual dismissal. Instead, someone starts sabotaging buildings using his own documentation against him.
Terrence's detailed safety reports become a blueprint for terrorism. His accurate predictions look like foreknowledge. His four years of comprehensive documentation become evidence of a sophisticated conspiracy. And someone who knows exactly what he notices-and why he can't stop investigating-is framing him perfectly.
You're like me, the messages say. But Terrence isn't like anyone. He's a seventeen-year-old with an analytical mind that can't ignore patterns, even when pattern recognition destroys his life.
The trial will decide if documentation is prevention or planning.
Terrence could take a plea deal and walk free. But that would mean admitting guilt he doesn't have-and accuracy matters more to him than freedom. So he fights the charges, maintains his innocence, and testifies with a precision that either proves his honesty or his calculation.
Four not guilty verdicts. One conviction for trespass. Eighteen months of probation with one critical restriction: he can observe buildings, but he cannot investigate crimes.
And the sender who framed him? Still operating. Still watching. Still predicting that Terrence will violate probation to prevent the next disaster.
Because the sender understands something fundamental about Terrence Lyle: he can't stop paying attention. Can't ignore imminent failures. Can't choose compliance over prevention when lives are at stake.
From the author: THE PATTERN is a thriller about a neurodivergent teen whose greatest gift-pattern recognition-becomes his most damning evidence. It's about the cost of honesty when precision looks like guilt. About choosing accuracy over expedience, even when truth is costly. About the impossible choice between being who you are and staying free.
