“The father could be the one who killed her. Have you thought of that?” Kate asked him. “How could you hold this information back from the police?”

He shook his head. “I told them. But Lily promised me I was the only one who knew. She was going to tell me who the father was. She said she wanted to wait until I had calmed down more.”

“So that must have been why she wanted to change her will. To include Blaire.” It all made sense suddenly.

Harrison nodded. “It must have been.”

She lay back again and closed her eyes, suddenly spent. Exhaustion overtook her, and as the sound of voices and the hum of machines drifted into the cubicle, she found herself dozing off.

30

Blaire was waiting for the doctor to release her. It was all so unfair. Kate was going to make her look like the bad guy once again. She thought back to the last time she’d been in a hospital bed, after the night that had changed everything. Carter had had to get a passed-out Jake in the back, and Blaire had insisted that Kate let her drive, given that she was the only sober one. Carter got in the passenger seat, while Kate crawled into the back with her boyfriend. It was raining, and they were on one of the dark country roads. Blaire had turned off the radio so she could focus better. Kate was having none of it. She’d leaned up from the back seat, fumbling with the radio dial until she turned it on again.

“Come on, I like that song,” she slurred.

Blaire pushed her hand away. “Kate, cut it out. I’m trying to concentrate.”

But Kate persisted. She turned the knob again, and the music blared. Kate was singing at the top of her lungs. Looking down, Blaire tried to find the button to turn the radio off, but the car was unfamiliar. When she looked back up, a pickup truck was careening toward them. She could still see the blinding lights from the truck. The sounds of screeching wheels and crashing metal were the last things Blaire heard before waking up at this same hospital. She’d appeared relatively unscathed, some scratches and bruises but nothing else, and still they’d insisted on examining her.

Jake had been pronounced dead at the scene.

Carter had broken an arm.

Kate didn’t have a scratch.

The authorities determined that the other driver was at fault, with an alcohol level twice the legal limit. Blaire remembered the guilt that had gnawed at Kate afterward, the guilt that kept telling her Blaire might have been able to get out of the way if Kate hadn’t distracted her.