“She must not think he’s the killer,” Belle said, her heart clenching as if a fist had wrapped around it. “At the very least, she’s in denial about it. He spent the past year looking for a steady job and a place for them to live. The thought of losing him, after just losing her mom, must be crushing. So Lily started looking for another suspect, and when she saw you burning Raven’s clothes, she thought you might’ve committed the murder while wearing them. She knew you kissed Raven behind my back. I told her, because I’d come up with this plan—”

“About the kiss,” Jack broke in, and Belle shook her head, wincing.

“I’m not ready, Jack. I believe you didn’t kill Lily’s mother, but I’m not ready to forgive you for kissing Raven. He’d just broken up with me. My heart was already so battered, and when I saw the two of you in the rose garden, I swear, my heart tumbled out of my chest. I felt empty for months. And then…” Belle closed her eyes, the sweetness of a memory washing over her. She’d been visiting Lily in the wellness facility for more than a year when she’d told Lily what had happened to her heart. The ache of her chest cavity opening and the detached sense of horror when she’d felt her heart, raw and red, slipping out. It had fallen into the dirt, gathering thorns and leaves.

She’d left it there to rot.

“My mother replaced the roses,” Lily had said, tucking a pale strand of hair behind her ear. She was wearing her usual bulky sweater, with at least two T-shirts beneath it. “She doesn’t visit me often, but we’ve been emailing a bit, and she told me a story about planting white roses to replace the red. Those are her favorite, you know? They’re pure and chaste, like her daughter.” A smile, followed by a grimace. “But something strange is happening in the garden. One of the roses keeps growing back red. She’s tried cutting it out, and she’s tried digging it up, but it just keeps coming back. Belle, I think that rose is your heart.”

Belle burst into laughter, because the suggestion was absurd. Impossible. And yet, at the mention of her heart, still alive and causing Lily’s mother grief, she’d felt a stirring in her chest that she hadn’t felt since Raven had left town.

She strolled out of the facility that day with a spring in her step and a great, buffoonish grin on her face. She didn’t care who might see it. For the next few days, Belle was giddy with the thought of her heart surviving the worst thing she’d been able to imagine: the loss of the boy she loved and her best friend.