If Noah convinced the board to pardon Danny, maybe, just maybe, life could go back to something resembling the days from Before. It wasn’t perfect back then, of course. And even before Danny’s arrest, she and Evan had grown apart. She’d betrayed her husband. And her children. Guilt engulfed her, but she decided to shake it off.

Not today.

She took the ramp into Adair and cruised through town until she hit the familiar country road that led to her childhood home. Her mind went again to herself as a teenager. The curve leading to the property was coming up and she planned to accelerate right at the arc, as she had done since she was sixteen, when she’d come home with a shiny laminated driver’s license.

Before she reached it, she tried Evan’s cell again. She was excited to tell him the news. But it went straight to voicemail. She listened to his recorded greeting amid the sound of the wind. Evan hadn’t changed his voice message in years. He sounded upbeat, friendly. Like the man she’d fallen in love with.

After the beep she said, “Hey, it’s me. Give me a call when you get time. I have news.” She paused. “Good news.”

Good news. It had been so long since she’d had any of that. She pushed down on the accelerator, and the rental car picked up speed. The wind blew more fiercely as she hit the famous curve, her hair lashing around the car.

That was when she saw the red cherries in her rearview mirror.

CHAPTER 32

“Seriously?” Liv said aloud as she pulled the car to the shoulder. There wasn’t another vehicle on the road, probably not one for miles, yet the small-town cop had pulled her over for going a little above the speed limit. What was the cop even doing here? In her entire childhood Liv couldn’t recall a police car ever patrolling the desolate winding road.

She started digging through the glove box, looking for the rental car’s registration papers, when there was a loud tap on the glass.

Lifting her gaze, she was blinded by a flashlight beam directly in her face. It made no sense. It wasn’t even dark outside. The ray finally swung away and all she saw for a moment was the afterglow. Finally her vision cleared enough to make out the officer’s face.

Liv’s blood went cold.

It was her.

There was no mistaking it. She still had the same frizzy eighties hair with the bangs. The same tomboy demeanor. One of the stars of Danny’s interrogation video, Officer Wendy White.

“You know why I pulled you over?” the officer asked.