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Back Safe in My Arms Save as PDF
Chapters (51)
  1. Cover
  2. Praise for Sara Shepard
  3. Also by Sara Shepard
  4. Dedication
  5. PART ONE
  6. —
  7. One
  8. Two
  9. Three
  10. Four
  11. Five
  12. Six
  13. Seven
  14. Eight
  15. Nine
  16. Ten
  17. Eleven
  18. Twelve
  19. Thirteen
  20. PART TWO
  21. Piper
  22. Fourteen
  23. Fifteen
  24. Sixteen
  25. Seventeen
  26. Piper
  27. Eighteen
  28. Piper
  29. Nineteen
  30. Twenty
  31. Twenty-One
  32. Twenty-Two
  33. Twenty-Three
  34. Piper
  35. Twenty-Four
  36. Twenty-Five
  37. Piper
  38. Twenty-Six
  39. Twenty-Seven
  40. Twenty-Eight
  41. Twenty-Nine
  42. Thirty
  43. Thirty-One
  44. Thirty-Two
  45. Thirty-Three
  46. Piper
  47. Thirty-Four
  48. Epilogue
  49. Acknowledgments
  50. About the Author
  51. What’s next onyour reading list?

If she dared ask for Piper’s room number, she’d be prohibited from visiting—surely it was family only. Instead, Ronnie walked the perimeter of the floor like she belonged here, avoiding nurses and peeking into each room as she passed. Most of the doors were ajar; only half the rooms were full. There was a sleeping man in the first room, and then an old lady with bandages on her head, and then a youngish man who was speaking angrily into a cell phone. She passed a hallway filled with tanks and machines and then squashed against the wall to let two nurses wheel an unconscious patient on a gurney.

She hesitated in front of the next room, 410, and couldn’t believe her luck. P. Jovan had been written in marker beside the door. A nurse turned the corner and headed in her direction. Taking a breath, Ronnie twisted the knob and slipped inside before anyone spied her.

Piper’s bed was against the wall and next to a bank of windows. The only sounds were the rhythmic beeping of monitors and a funny little grrrr of a blood pressure cuff tightening on an arm. Piper lay beneath white sheets, flat on her back. Her black hair was fanned around her, and her eyes were closed. She had a lot of tubes in her arms and one in her nose, but she looked peaceful.

Someone had attacked her, put her here. That hit Ronnie sideways: It hadn’t been Jerrod. Vanessa might be a liar, but there was no way Jerrod was in Raisin Beach—he’d have already found Ronnie and finished her off. The notion made her shaky with relief, and she fell softly against the side of Piper’s bed, bumping her ankle against the metal bedpost.

“Ow!” Ronnie said, moving away. To her surprise, when she turned back to Piper, the woman’s eyes were open. Piper stared at the ceiling, then peered slowly around the room and finally settled on Ronnie. Ronnie froze. Should she alert someone about this?

The tiny wrinkles around Piper’s eyes deepened as she squinted at Ronnie. Ronnie raised her hand in an embarrassed little wave. “Um, hi. I’m . . . from the school. A mom? We met at the Welcome Breakfast? I . . . just wanted to see how you were doing.”

Piper blinked at her, long and slow. And then she rose up, pointed at Ronnie. What she said next would haunt Ronnie for a long, long time.

Twenty-Seven

Clarissa seemed surprised when Lauren announced she was going out. “Are you sure you’re okay to drive?” She looked her up and down. “You look a little . . .”