“I’m not leaving.” Two sets of slate-gray eyes, each locked on the other.

“Everything about you is a lie.” I spit the words out like poison. “There’s nothing extraordinary about you. You stole it all from my mother.” It surprises me how much it hurts to say those words. Because I wanted so much for Willa Culver to be exactly who she said she was. I was so willing to love her for who she pretended she was. And I was so hungry for her to love me back.

“You can’t steal from a dead woman,” Willa tells me. Her eyes are so cold. How could I ever have thought they looked like Cole’s eyes? “That play wouldn’t have done your mother any good.”

“How could you kill your best friend?” My jaw is clenched so tight that I’m not sure how the words can find a way out. “She fucking loved you!” There are hot, angry tears on my cheeks. Because Willa Culver took so much from me. She took my whole world.

Willa looks genuinely surprised. “I didn’t kill your mother, April. All I did was accept a bargain.” She smiles at me. “I can’t let you accuse me of murder in front of my son.”

“It was Glory, wasn’t it. We had that part right.” Cole’s voice is so quiet. He sounds so distant. I grab his hand to make sure he’s still there. That he hasn’t slipped away from me.

“They had a fight that night,” Willa says. “A big one.” She’s playing with the matches while she talks. Holding one delicately between her fingers. Rubbing the head just so lightly across the side of the box. Reminding us that she could strike a flame at any moment. If she chose to. Because she’s Willa Culver. And she’s extraordinary.

“Nicole told Glory that she was leaving,” she goes on. “That it was over. All of it was over. Nicole came straight here when she left Glory’s place. Brody and I were going to set her up with a little apartment in the city. Just something tiny. A fresh start.”

The scratching sound of the match against the striking strip. A barely audible warning. A reminder to us that we’re not in charge here. That Willa is telling this story because she chooses to. Because there’s nothing Willa Culver loves more than an audience.

“But Glory followed her here. I heard them fighting down at the edge of the cliff, so I stepped out on the porch to see what was going on.” Willa finally strikes the match and Cole and I both suck in our breaths. “And that’s when I saw Glory push her over the edge. I don’t think she meant to do it. She just did it.” Willa shrugs. “But there are moments of no return. Some things you can’t take back.”