BooksBarbecue
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?

She mumbled a goodbye and then was in the hall. A nurse at the computer station looked up at Lauren curiously as she passed, but Lauren didn’t even look at her. Good luck in prison, Piper, she thought, not feeling particularly broken up.

Through the double doors, into the parking lot. Lauren peeled off the badge with her ID picture and tossed it into the trash can. Something about the way it pinged against the metal—or maybe the oily smell in the parking lot—knocked something loose in her brain. She stopped short, staring down the line of cars.

Graham didn’t have that red sweater anymore.

He’d loved that Burberry sweater—but it was so damn old and worn. Graham wanted to keep it, but Lauren insisted on throwing it away. Into the bin it went, the lid making the same clang as the sound that had just echoed in her ears. Unless Graham had a secret closet Lauren didn’t know about, she could think of no other red item of clothing.

Lauren swung around and considered the entrance to the hospital. Should she go back in and confront Piper? Only, why? Didn’t she want Graham to be convicted? He deserved it—more than Carson, more than anyone. But what if it wasn’t true? I did you a favor. Did Piper remember something involving Lauren?

Overhead, a jet cut through the clouds, leaving a trail of exhaust. Lauren studied it until her eyes blurred. No, she decided, shaking out her shoulders. No, that was Graham’s influence rearing its head. She hadn’t done anything. She was sure of that now.

Piper

Last Thursday

You are alone in your office. The Asshole has just left. You close your eyes, hold the edge of your desk, and take a centering breath. You can do this. You aren’t going to let him ruin you. But he scares you all the same. He knows where you live. He’s been poking around your house when you aren’t there—you’re sure of it. Looking for those photos, probably. He knows you took them all those years ago. When you left, he was relieved. He thought he’d never see you again, that your lives would never intersect. But now, they do. Those photos are dangerous again.

His baby’s eyes sear into your brain. His happy smile, his gurgling laugh. It broke your heart to see that baby today, and Graham knows it. That was how old North had been when it happened.