All I wanted was for people to laugh at her for a change. Instead, she cracked her head open on a jagged rock, and then she proceeded to strike more rocks as she rolled down toward the riverbank, leaving a bloody trail behind her. Freak accident, everyone said. What a tragedy. One-in-a-million chance that she ended up brain damaged, but that’s what happened.

Emily’s friends accused me of pushing her. It’s the weirdo’s fault! they screamed, pointing pink-polished fingernails as mascara-blackened tears stained their cheeks. Everyone else shifted their eyes away when I insisted she had tripped and fallen. The same counselors who had laughed when Emily tricked me watched me warily and wouldn’t let me be alone with anyone else. Even my father, when I opened my mouth to tell him my side of the story, had shushed me with the admonishment “Some things are better left unsaid.” I knew that everyone thought I pushed her, but no one knew for certain.

Except, apparently, Max.

“I didn’t mean to hurt her,” I said. “Just like I’m sure you didn’t mean to hurt Audrey. These were both just accidents. Unfortunate, tragic accidents.”

“They’re not the same at all,” he protested. “You pushed Emily. Audrey fell.”

“Think about how this looks, Max. You were stalking her, and—”

“I wasn’t stalking her.”

“No? Explain those photographs. Explain how she’s dead in your arms, with you covered in her blood. No one will ever believe you.” I paused to allow the weight of my words to sink in and then pointed to the open bottle of wine on the kitchen counter. “But maybe it was an accident. Maybe she was drinking and fell. Maybe you were never here, and she died alone.”

“She’s not dead!” he shouted, yanking his phone free from his pocket. “Fuck, Cathy, what is wrong with you?”

I couldn’t let him make that call. I couldn’t have the police coming here before I’d convinced him to leave, couldn’t have them finding him blood-soaked, manic, and babbling about Emily Snow. I would do anything to stop him.

I lunged for him, managing to smack the phone from his hands before slipping on the blood-splattered floor and landing hard on my back. Sharp pain radiated from my spine and I struggled to catch my breath. Before I could gather myself, Max threw his body over mine, pinning me against the floor while he reached for the phone, which remained just out of his grasp.

“Get off me!” I grunted, struggling.

“She trusted you,” he barked, saliva flying from his mouth and landing on my face. A vein bulged in his forehead as he stared down at me, his expression one of twisted rage, and then he grabbed a fistful of my hair, painfully yanking my head up before smashing it down against the floor. Stars burst in my vision, and I cried out.

He made another grab for the phone, and despite the mind-bending pain in my head and the room swirling around me, I forced myself to take advantage of his momentary distraction. I threw my body weight at him like Audrey and I had learned to do in self-defense class, knocking him off balance, and then scrambled atop him, using my knees to hold him down. He spluttered with fury, fingers grasping at the edges of the cell phone, sending it spinning out of his grasp.