“Hey, Trace,” Sam said. “Why don’t you let me take a turn hanging with Brooke? Go get a coffee and call the kids. I’ll take over for a while.”

Tracy wiped the tears from her face. “Are you sure?”

“Of course. Go on. I’ll be here.”

“I would like to call Abby and Ethan. Thanks, Sam.”

“Sure.” Sam had no doubt that it would be harder on Tracy to hear what Brooke remembered than it would be for Brooke to talk about it. Having her mother out of the room might make Brooke more forthcoming too. “Is it okay if I talk to her about everything?”

Tracy hesitated before she nodded. “Someone has to. It may as well be you.” She bent to kiss Brooke’s cheek. “I’ll be back shortly. Do me a favor—and do yourself a favor—when Sam asks you about what happened the other night, tell her the truth.”

Satisfied that Brooke’s pain had been successfully managed for the moment, the nurse followed Tracy from the room.

“Thank you,” Brooke said in a whisper. “My mom is so upset. I can’t deal with it.”

“She’s worried about you. You’ve been badly hurt.”

“I don’t understand. Tell me what happened, will you please? No one will tell me.”

“What do you remember? Let’s start with that.”

“Hoda came to my school,” she said tentatively. “I know what we did was wrong, but I asked my parents if I could come home on Friday rather than Saturday because I wanted to see my friends. But they had to work so they couldn’t come to get me until Saturday, and I didn’t want to miss the party.” She sniffed and wiped her eyes and nose with a hand that was still hooked to an IV. Her dark hair swirled about her head like a messy halo and her always-pale complexion was positively translucent after her ordeal, except for the bruises on the left side of her face that were now beginning to yellow.

“When you and Hoda got to the city, where did you go?”

“To Hugo’s house. He’s a friend of Hoda’s.”

“What happened then?”

“There were a lot of kids there. Everyone was drinking... And stuff.”

“What stuff?”

Brooke shifted to find a more comfortable position and seemed to immediately regret it. “Why does it hurt so bad between my legs?”

“We’ll get to that. What other stuff were the kids doing?”

“There were some pills. I think it was Molly. I heard someone saying it was something new and really cool.”

“You think but you don’t know for sure?”

“I don’t know for sure.”

“But you took some of it anyway?”

Brooke looked down at her hands, which were fisted around the bedclothes. “I know it was wrong, but everyone was doing it, and I didn’t think anything would happen.”