Chapters (51)
- Cover
- Praise for Sara Shepard
- Also by Sara Shepard
- Dedication
- PART ONE
- —
- One
- Two
- Three
- Four
- Five
- Six
- Seven
- Eight
- Nine
- Ten
- Eleven
- Twelve
- Thirteen
- PART TWO
- Piper
- Fourteen
- Fifteen
- Sixteen
- Seventeen
- Piper
- Eighteen
- Piper
- Nineteen
- Twenty
- Twenty-One
- Twenty-Two
- Twenty-Three
- Piper
- Twenty-Four
- Twenty-Five
- Piper
- Twenty-Six
- Twenty-Seven
- Twenty-Eight
- Twenty-Nine
- Thirty
- Thirty-One
- Thirty-Two
- Thirty-Three
- Piper
- Thirty-Four
- Epilogue
- Acknowledgments
- About the Author
- What’s next onyour reading list?
“Uh, there are some horses close by.” Vanessa touched her arm. “Baby, we have a long ride ahead of us.” Then she eyed the suitcase on the floor, her mouth in a twist. “Lucky for you, you’re already packed. Or is this mommy’s ?”
“Wait.” Ronnie had never felt so desperate. “Stay a few days. Esme can go with you to a hotel or something. You can get to know each other. But just stay in town—to smooth the transition.” Her gaze slid across the room to her purse. “I’ll pay. Please.”
Vanessa twisted her mouth. “I don’t really like it here.”
What about Esme? Ronnie wanted to scream. Have you asked her what she likes? “There’s a motel nearby. It’s clean, nice—I’ll call them now. It . . . it has a pool.” She looked at Esme and smiled. “You can go swimming!”
Esme squinted at Vanessa, then back at Ronnie. She held one of her ponies by its long, flossy tail. “You’ll come too, Mommy?”
“I . . . could.” Ronnie smiled hopefully at Vanessa. “I could get a separate room. So you two could be together. But I would still be close, just in case.”
“Just in case what?” Vanessa took Esme’s forearm. “I don’t think Auntie Ronnie can come, honey. You’re with me now.”
Something about this seemed to penetrate Esme’s brain. She glanced at Ronnie with increased trepidation—it was the same look she’d given Ronnie last year at a local swimming pool when she’d stepped beyond a spot her feet could touch and was suddenly foundering. “No,” she said. She was doing that rabbit-nose-twitch thing when she was about to cry. “No, I don’t wanna go.”
“Baby,” was all Ronnie could say. How could she explain? “Baby, I did something bad. A long time ago.”
Esme’s eyes filled with tears. “No!” she shrieked. “I don’t wanna go! I wanna stay here!”
Ronnie’s eyes filled, too. She glanced at Vanessa; didn’t she see what she was doing? But Vanessa was standing tall, one of her hands on the crown of Esme’s head. “Ronnie did a bad thing,” she repeated. “And she doesn’t want to make it any worse by making a scene, does she?” Then she smiled down at Esme. “Let’s take more things. Let’s find all your favorite toys. How’s that?”
“I’m not going!” Esme shrieked. Now she was in full tantrum mode, throwing herself on the ground. Screams heaved from her body.