It’s the most obvious question he possibly could have asked, and I am utterly unprepared for it. “He committed a crime.”

“Did he steal something?”

“No…”

“Then what did he do?”

“He… he hurt somebody.”

Josh scrunches his face up. “Tim wouldn’t hurt anybody on purpose.”

He has no idea…

“He did, honey,” I say. “And… he’s probably going to go to jail. For a long time.”

“You mean he’s not coming back here?”

I shake my head slowly. Tim will never set foot in this house again. Not over my dead body. It makes me sick the way I allowed him into our lives.

Josh leans back in his chair. His face turns pink, and I don’t realize he’s crying until he swipes at his eyes with the back of his hand. It’s so hard to watch him cry quietly. I miss those loud, dramatic tears from when he was little. This is so much more heartbreaking.

“Josh,” I say, “please don’t cry.”

“You’re crying.”

I touch my eyes and realize he’s right. My entire face is wet with tears. Josh climbs into my lap like he used to when he was a toddler, and I hold him close to me while we both mourn the loss of yet another person from our lives.

Chapter 44

TWO MONTHS LATER

The sight of the barbed wire fence around the maximum-security prison still makes me edgy.

I quit my job at Raker Penitentiary about two months ago. I’ve been here several times since then, but only as a visitor. In the parking lot, you can see the sharp spikes at the top of the fence, and the guard towers flanking the outdoor yard.

I won’t be here long though. I’m barely going to get out of the car. And after today, I’ll never come back here again.

A lot has happened in the last two months. Aside from my new job, which I love, Tim is currently incarcerated, awaiting trial for multiple murders. While he was dating me, he was also stalking Kelli. I had no idea, of course. From my end, he seemed like the perfect boyfriend. Although several people from the elementary school claimed that they knew there was something a little off about him.

I recanted my testimony about the night at the farmhouse. Even though I knew I could get in a lot of trouble for it, I had to do it. I had to tell the police that I realized I got it wrong. Shane hadn’t been the one who tried to strangle me that night. It was Tim. He was the one twisted enough to try to kill me with the very necklace he bought me.

And then he saved it for an entire decade. Waiting for the right moment to use it against me.