I’d sat there numb and paralyzed for a few seconds before I’d climbed out of the car myself. Slowly, heart pounding, I’d walked toward the Nissan, its horn still blaring. The darkness of the night stole my breath. There was just enough light for me to see that my car had impaled the driver’s side of the Nissan. I couldn’t see inside the car. Couldn’t possibly get to the driver through that door. Battling nausea, I climbed through brush and leaves around the front of the Nissan and mustered my courage to force open the passenger side door. The overhead light came on and I knew in that moment that the image in front of me would haunt my dreams forever: long black hair and blood, twisted limbs and bones. I screamed and screamed and screamed until someone showed up next to me and someone else called the police. Even when I was surrounded by sirens and flashing lights, wrapped in a blanket, and being treated for a cut on my forehead I hadn’t known I had—even through all of that, I screamed.

“Is she dead?” I kept shouting, my arms wrapped across my chest, my whole body tightened into a ball of horror. “Is she dead? Is she dead?”

I remembered, with painful clarity, the words of the cop standing next to me. “You didn’t kill her,” he said, “but you sure as hell ruined her life.”

“I’m sorry,” I whispered now, standing in the gallery’s kitchenette. I pressed my fingers against my eyes as if I could block out the images of that night. The memories. I thought briefly of finding Adam and Wyatt. I imagined having a couple of beers with them to wipe out the horror. Dangerous thinking. I was going to have to find a way to live, sober, with the memories of all that had happened. You are alive, I thought to myself. Healthy and whole. Emily never would be. I had to appreciate my second chance. That’s what I had to remember.

Chapter 18. Anna

Chapter 18

ANNA

January 2, 1940

Anna had thought of Plainfield as a small town, but she’d had no idea what a real small town was like until now. She’d barely been in Edenton for a month and people already knew who she was, no matter where she went. She discovered that could be both good and bad.