Chapters (59)
- COVER
- About the Author
- 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
- FORTY-FOUR
- FORTY-FIVE
- FORTY-SIX
- FORTY-SEVEN
- FORTY-EIGHT
- FORTY-NINE
- FIFTY
- FIFTY-ONE
- FIFTY-TWO
- FIFTY-THREE
- FIFTY-FOUR
- Acknowledgments
- THIS IS JUST THE BEGINNING
‘But then McKnight told me I can’t leave, not while they’re still investigating, and so I’m trapped here, just waiting for him, and I don’t know what he’s going to do – I don’t know what he’s already done.’ I sucked in a breath. ‘And now they’re saying I’ve been to the cabin, which I’ve never even been inside. You didn’t tell them I’d been there, did you?’
‘God, no,’ Vera said. ‘Why would I? They asked me about you and John, and I told them you were friends. I told them the truth.’
‘That’s all they said?’ I asked.
‘Yes,’ she said. ‘Why?’
I licked my lips. Fear pumped through my veins because, so badly, I didn’t want her to know. But at the same time, she was all I had left, and now I might lose her, too. I didn’t know how long I had before they told her about that photo. I didn’t know how long I had until the questions in her head turned into facts, presented before her, laid out on the unforgiving Formica table in the police station.
‘What is it?’ Vera asked. ‘You’re not making sense. Why would your ex want to hurt John?’
I shook my head.
‘Lucy,’ Vera said. ‘You have to tell me. Please.’
My lips quivered. ‘The police took my DNA.’
‘It’s okay,’ she said hesitantly. ‘They took mine, too. It’s routine.’
‘No,’ I said, my face going hot. ‘It’s more than that. They found a pair of underwear in the cabin. I don’t think they’re mine, but …’
‘But what?’
‘The police think,’ I said shakily, ‘they think that I, that me and John …’
Vera took a deep breath. ‘They think that about practically every woman in town, Lucy. That doesn’t mean that your ex – It still doesn’t make sense.’
I tugged at the neckline of my top, half wishing I could just disappear. Vera was my friend, my best friend – my only friend. I had to try to get ahead of this.
I had to play it right. I had to try.
‘They have a reason.’ I managed. ‘That night. That night that you were out of town, getting the car … The next morning, I woke up, and John was right there in my bed. Nothing happened, he was fully clothed, only I feel so sick about it every time I see you. I feel so guilty. I’m a horrible friend. I’m not who you thought I was, and I worry that Davis somehow saw that, and he got angry, and – and – and that all of this is my fault.’