“No way.” Shane beams at me. “He liked my suggestion. That was great. Also…” He lowers his voice. “He reminds me a lot of myself at that age.”

“I know—he looks a lot like you.”

“Not just that.” He casts a glance over his shoulder. “There’s something about him. His personality. He just… it makes me think of what I used to be like at that age.”

I don’t want to disagree with Shane, but internally, I am shaking my head. Josh is not like Shane. I didn’t know Shane that well before we started dating, but everyone knew Shane Nelson was wild. Josh isn’t that way at all. He’s shy and sweet and has never once started trouble at school.

“Why don’t you go play Nintendo with him?” I suggest.

Shane’s eyes light up. “Yeah?”

“Sure. Why not?”

“I used to play at friends’ houses when I was a kid…” Of course, the Nelsons could not afford Nintendo. They could barely afford to keep the lights on. “You think he would want me to?”

“He definitely would.”

I finish making the Ritz crackers snack myself while Shane goes into the living room to join Josh. I can just barely see them, and I can’t hear anything they’re saying, but it looks like it’s going well. Shane leans over Josh, talking to him. Then he settles down on the couch next to him.

After ten years, Josh is finally spending time with his father. I can’t wait to tell him the truth.

Chapter 46

While Shane and Josh are playing Nintendo, my phone rings with a number I don’t recognize.

When Tim was first arrested, I learned not to answer the phone if I didn’t recognize the number. Mostly, it was reporters on the other line, desperate for a firsthand account of my experience both eleven years ago and over the last few months. They offered me mind-boggling amounts of cash to tell my story, but I always refused. It’s bad enough I’ll have to testify at Tim’s trial—I have no desire to relive it with a reporter and then see my story smeared all over the news and the internet. Not to mention it would increase the chances of Josh finding out the truth.

And then there were the haters who used to call me. People who were furious with me for sending an innocent man to jail. For falling in love with a man who turned out to be a killer. I had to change my email address because my inbox was flooded every day with angry messages and even threats. I changed my phone number too, but it didn’t help. If someone truly wants to reach you, there’s always a way.