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Back Lying Next to Me Save as PDF
Chapters (87)
  1. TITLE PAGE
  2. COPYRIGHT
  3. DEDICATION
  4. CONTENTS
  5. START READING
  6. CHAPTER ONE
  7. CHAPTER TWO
  8. CHAPTER THREE
  9. CHAPTER FOUR
  10. CHAPTER FIVE
  11. CHAPTER SIX
  12. CHAPTER SEVEN
  13. CHAPTER EIGHT
  14. CHAPTER NINE
  15. CHAPTER TEN
  16. CHAPTER ELEVEN
  17. CHAPTER TWELVE
  18. CHAPTER THIRTEEN
  19. CHAPTER FOURTEEN
  20. CHAPTER FIFTEEN
  21. CHAPTER SIXTEEN
  22. CHAPTER SEVENTEEN
  23. CHAPTER EIGHTEEN
  24. CHAPTER NINETEEN
  25. CHAPTER TWENTY
  26. CHAPTER TWENTY-ONE
  27. CHAPTER TWENTY-TWO
  28. CHAPTER TWENTY-THREE
  29. CHAPTER TWENTY-FOUR
  30. CHAPTER TWENTY-FIVE
  31. CHAPTER TWENTY-SIX
  32. CHAPTER TWENTY-SEVEN
  33. CHAPTER TWENTY-EIGHT
  34. CHAPTER TWENTY-NINE
  35. CHAPTER THIRTY
  36. CHAPTER THIRTY-ONE
  37. CHAPTER THIRTY-TWO
  38. CHAPTER THIRTY-THREE
  39. CHAPTER THIRTY-FOUR
  40. CHAPTER THIRTY-FIVE
  41. CHAPTER THIRTY-SIX
  42. CHAPTER THIRTY-SEVEN
  43. CHAPTER THIRTY-EIGHT
  44. CHAPTER THIRTY-NINE
  45. CHAPTER FORTY
  46. CHAPTER FORTY-ONE
  47. CHAPTER FORTY-TWO
  48. CHAPTER FORTY-THREE
  49. CHAPTER FORTY-FOUR
  50. CHAPTER FORTY-FIVE
  51. CHAPTER FORTY-SIX
  52. CHAPTER FORTY-SEVEN
  53. CHAPTER FORTY-EIGHT
  54. CHAPTER FORTY-NINE
  55. CHAPTER FIFTY
  56. CHAPTER FIFTY-ONE
  57. CHAPTER FIFTY-TWO
  58. CHAPTER FIFTY-THREE
  59. CHAPTER FIFTY-FOUR
  60. CHAPTER FIFTY-FIVE
  61. CHAPTER FIFTY-SIX
  62. CHAPTER FIFTY-SEVEN
  63. CHAPTER FIFTY-EIGHT
  64. CHAPTER FIFTY-NINE
  65. CHAPTER SIXTY
  66. CHAPTER SIXTY-ONE
  67. CHAPTER SIXTY-TWO
  68. CHAPTER SIXTY-THREE
  69. CHAPTER SIXTY-FOUR
  70. CHAPTER SIXTY-FIVE
  71. CHAPTER SIXTY-SIX
  72. CHAPTER SIXTY-SEVEN
  73. CHAPTER SIXTY-EIGHT
  74. CHAPTER SIXTY-NINE
  75. CHAPTER SEVENTY
  76. CHAPTER SEVENTY-ONE
  77. CHAPTER SEVENTY-TWO
  78. CHAPTER SEVENTY-THREE
  79. CHAPTER SEVENTY-FOUR
  80. CHAPTER SEVENTY-FIVE
  81. CHAPTER SEVENTY-SIX
  82. CHAPTER SEVENTY-SEVEN
  83. CHAPTER SEVENTY-EIGHT
  84. CHAPTER SEVENTY-NINE
  85. CHAPTER EIGHTY
  86. EPILOGUE
  87. ABOUT THE AUTHOR

I’ll be okay. This is not the worst thing that could ever happen, I think. Mostly because I don’t know what happened at all.

My phone pings.

Adrenaline is a river through my body. It’s a text from Adam.

Hey. You left. Hope everything is good. Nothing happened, by the way. I was a perfect gentleman.

I let out a sigh of relief.

I know that’s true.

CHAPTER SIXTY-SEVEN

CHAPTER SIXTY-SEVEN

LEE

It’s a sunny Saturday morning a month after Connor’s arrest, and I go where I always go on Saturday, Sister’s Restaurant on Railroad Avenue. I don’t have a sister, of course. I have a cat that thinks she’s a person, so on some level I think I qualify. In any case, I order my usual, a Swiss-and-mushroom omelet and whole-wheat toast with raspberry freezer jam. As I drink coffee and wait for my waitress, Diane, to bring my order, I ruminate on the past. I replay the same scenarios over and over in my head. It’s a wonder that I can move forward when so many things keep me glued to the past. I’m a fly on flypaper. I think about how I was the one to survive when Cathy Rinehart and Sophie Warner were not. How it was me who went on to live a full life—or as full as I can manage—and they were left to dust or memories. I almost never think of the perpetrators of crimes like these, but rather the what-ifs of the lives they’ve stolen.

Cathy would be out on her own now. Maybe have a family. Sophie would be reading to Aubrey and telling her silly stories about her father. My mom did that. She teased my father, and he went along with it. If she said he’d hunted bear in Alaska, then he’d join in and have me help dig for a bear’s tooth in the backyard. One time she told me that Daddy had been to the moon, and he took me out to the backyard and pointed out where he’d left his footprints. I think I knew it was a game very early on, but I loved it anyway.

When Diane leaves, I see Dan Belding Jr. a couple of tables over from me. Dan was two years ahead of me in school. I remember how Kip and Adam used to tease him by calling him Water Boy. Now we call that bullying, of course. Back then everyone just laughed it off.

At least, my brother and Adam did.

I wonder if Dan ever thought it was funny.

“Hey,” he says, getting up. “You alone?”

I give him a smile. “Yeah. Same as every day.”

“Join you?”