“No! She grabbed me, and I . . .” Emma cried, the words coming out in a combination of a moan and a sob. “I didn’t think she’d . . .” But she couldn’t say anything more. Had it been an accident, or had her fears and anger gotten the best of her? Had she pushed harder than she thought? Guilt sloshed through her veins. This had to be a mistake. A dream. A nightmare. But then she remembered grabbing Gabby’s taut shoulders and pushing her away. Fresh, terrified tears swarmed her eyes.

“Haven’t you put Gabby through enough, Sutton?” Charlotte screamed. “What if she’s hurt?”

“I told you, I didn’t mean to do it!” Emma shouted, her head spinning. She squinted through the darkness to the bottom of the ravine. Gabby had to be there, alive, fine. This wasn’t how things were supposed to go. She wasn’t supposed to be the villain—Gabby and Lili were, for killing Sutton! She was just defending herself! But Sutton’s friends wouldn’t buy that. Neither would the cops—not without proof of what the twins did.

“Someone call nine-one-one,” Laurel yelled.

Emma looked helplessly down at Sutton’s phone. “There’s no service out here!”

“What are we going to do?” Madeline shrieked.

Laurel pointed to a dark, narrow path that led down the mountain, practically overgrown with cacti, brambles, and shrubs. “We have to get to her. We have to see if she’s okay.”

Laurel bushwhacked through the brush and started down the slope, using her cell phone as a dim flashlight. Emma leapt over the ravine and followed them. Cactus spines poked her arms, insinuating their way under her skin, but she felt impervious to the pain. It was an accident, Emma repeated over and over to herself, but a tiny voice inside her kept crying, Was it?

“Gabby?” Laurel called out.

“Gabs!” Madeline screamed.

No answer. A chilly wind gusted, piercing through Emma’s thin sweater.

“What if she’s unconscious when we get to her?” Laurel sobbed. “Does anyone know CPR?”

Charlotte clutched a tree branch that looked moments away from snapping with the weight of her grasp. “How will we be able to call an ambulance? What if she’s having a seizure?”

“The doctor said her medicine would prevent that, right?” Laurel said, sounding completely unconvinced.

“What if she forgot to take it today?” Madeline asked, her voice shaking.

Charlotte crept carefully down the path, avoiding a spear-shaped rock that jutted from a patch of dirt.

Again Emma tried an outgoing call on her cell phone. The other girls did, too, but no one could get a signal. Crack. Emma stopped short and looked around. “Gabby?” she called hopefully. No answer.