Chapters (51)
- Cover
- Dedication
- One
- Two
- Three
- Four
- Five
- Six
- Seven
- Eight
- Nine
- Ten
- Eleven
- Twelve
- Thirteen
- Fourteen
- Fifteen
- Sixteen
- Seventeen
- Eighteen
- Nineteen
- Twenty
- Twenty-One
- Twenty-Two
- Twenty-Three
- Twenty-Four
- Twenty-Five
- Twenty-Six
- Twenty-Seven
- Twenty-Eight
- Twenty-Nine
- Thirty
- Thirty-One
- Thirty-Two
- Thirty-Three
- Thirty-Four
- Thirty-Five
- Thirty-Six
- Thirty-Seven
- Thirty-Eight
- Thirty-Nine
- Forty
- Forty-One
- Forty-Two
- Forty-Three
- Acknowledgments
- P.S. Insights, Interviews & More . . .*
- About the Author
- About the Book
- Also by Alison Gaylin
- About the Publisher
After we get some more energy, we will burn Gabriel’s body. I’m drinking from her bottle of vodka, and my ear’s starting to feel better. Elizabeth is looking through Gabriel’s wallet, and she just showed me something she found in there: a scrap of paper with a phone number written on it, and the letter K. Elizabeth thought maybe Gabriel had a secret lover, but I told her that wasn’t likely. From what I knew of Gabriel, one lover seemed like too many. Then she said something that made me stop breathing: “Maybe he has another sister besides that little girl.”
Jenny is with my sister. Was that what he had been trying to tell me—that she was alive and with some other sister, not the one he had killed? Was this number the same one that he’d been calling?
4:00 A.M.
It’s another hour later. I am finally feeling like I really could sleep. Elizabeth and I built a much bigger fire and dragged Gabriel’s body into it—a very long and exhausting ordeal. The fire’s burning higher than we thought it would, and the smoke is thick and choking. I put my head on Elizabeth’s shoulder. We talk about our short-term plans. Mine is to find a working phone somewhere and call the number on the scrap of paper. Elizabeth’s is to leave this place again forever. “I was away from here so long, I forgot,” she said to me. “My father hates me because I’m not a true believer. And some of my brothers are bad. I will need to protect you.” I don’t feel like I need protection, though. Not anymore. I feel like I can do the protecting.
The sky here is so beautiful—like someone spilled a jar of silver glitter over a black velvet cape. I’ve never seen stars like this before, Aurora Grace. It’s like I’m looking straight up at heaven.
Thirty-Eight
Robin
ROBIN FELT AS though she were standing on her tiptoes at the edge of a cliff, and any movement at all—any word in this case—was certain to make her fall.
“Robin?” Nicola said. “What are you doing?” And Robin realized how agonizing it was, standing on one’s tiptoes forever.
Robin opened her hand. Held it out to reveal the souvenir penny, older than she was but still shiny and smooth in her palm. The star. Corsica. “Do you know what this is?” she said.
Nicola took a few steps closer and peered into her hand. “A souvenir?”
“It’s from a movie theater called the Corsica,” she said. “I found it in Mom’s things.”
Nicola’s eyes narrowed. “Why were you going through your mother’s things?”