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Back The Mother Next Door Save as PDF
Chapters (84)
  1. Cover
  2. Praise
  3. Dedication
  4. About the Author
  5. HALLOWEEN
  6. Seven Weeks Before Halloween
  7. ONE
  8. TWO
  9. THREE
  10. HALLOWEEN
  11. Six Weeks Before Halloween
  12. FOUR
  13. FIVE
  14. SIX
  15. HALLOWEEN
  16. Five Weeks Before Halloween
  17. SEVEN
  18. EIGHT
  19. HALLOWEEN
  20. NINE
  21. TEN
  22. HALLOWEEN
  23. ELEVEN
  24. TWELVE
  25. Twenty-Five Days Until Halloween
  26. THIRTEEN
  27. FOURTEEN
  28. HALLOWEEN
  29. FIFTEEN
  30. SIXTEEN
  31. SEVENTEEN
  32. EIGHTEEN
  33. NINETEEN
  34. TWENTY
  35. HALLOWEEN
  36. Eighteen Days Until Halloween
  37. TWENTY-ONE
  38. TWENTY-TWO
  39. HALLOWEEN
  40. TWENTY-THREE
  41. TWENTY-FOUR
  42. Eleven Days Until Halloween
  43. TWENTY-FIVE
  44. TWENTY-SIX
  45. Eight Days Until Halloween
  46. TWENTY-SEVEN
  47. TWENTY-EIGHT
  48. TWENTY-NINE
  49. HALLOWEEN
  50. THIRTY
  51. Four Days Until Halloween
  52. THIRTY-ONE
  53. HALLOWEEN
  54. THIRTY-TWO
  55. Two Days Until Halloween
  56. THIRTY-THREE
  57. The Night Before Halloween
  58. THIRTY-FOUR
  59. HALLOWEEN
  60. THIRTY-FIVE
  61. Halloween, Present Day
  62. THIRTY-SIX
  63. THIRTY-SEVEN
  64. HALLOWEEN
  65. THIRTY-EIGHT
  66. HALLOWEEN
  67. THIRTY-NINE
  68. HALLOWEEN
  69. FORTY
  70. HALLOWEEN
  71. FORTY-ONE
  72. FORTY-TWO
  73. FORTY-THREE
  74. FORTY-FOUR
  75. HALLOWEEN... NOW
  76. FORTY-FIVE
  77. Seven Months Later
  78. FORTY-SIX
  79. FORTY-SEVEN
  80. ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
  81. ALICE SWANSON’S
  82. Reader's Guide
  83. Questions for Discussion
  84. Booklist

Theresa’s house.

She’d promised she wouldn’t talk to Maggie about the story. Once a liar, always a liar. She must have lied about Jackie, too.

“Did Daphne Brown really leap to her death that night? Or did something else happen? Tune in Halloween night to see this special I-Team investigation.”

And then Theresa herself, the traitor, silhouetted in the frame of her front door. As the camera zoomed out, away from her, she walked inside. Reached up, tugged at the end of her ponytail and twisted it around her finger, all innocent. That gesture.

That house.

That liar.

Theresa was going to pay for her lies.

We had to confront her before the block party. I just needed a plan first.

The Night Before Halloween

THE NIGHT BEFORE HALLOWEEN

THIRTY-FOUR

Theresa

As I came up the stairs, Lily tried to toss the Ouija board under her bed, but she missed, and the planchette skittered toward my feet.

“Why are you sneaking up on us?” Her eyes flashed with annoyance.

They’d lit black votive candles, the only light other than Lily’s small desk lamp, and were sitting cross-legged on the floor. Ellen’s face was shadowed, but I could see the hint of a smug smile.

I picked up the planchette and handed it to Ellen. “I don’t want that thing in my house, girls.”

“Mom! What is wrong with you?”

What is wrong with me? Good question. How about everything, Lily? My life was crumbling around me. I got a call this afternoon from the Post saying they were canceling my second interview because they’d decided to take the job “in a different direction.” Maggie’s story has caused me trouble with the Ivies. And someone thinks it’s funny to threaten me and I don’t know who it is. How about that?

“No one should mess with these things,” I said. I couldn’t stop my voice from rising in pitch. “They’re dangerous.”

That was my mother’s voice coming through. Fifth grade, my best friend Molly and me in my room with a Ouija board. Goofing around, trying it out. But my mother had heard us shrieking and came barreling in. She’d never liked Molly—thought she wasn’t good enough for me. Wished I’d hung out more with Carley Aronowitz, whose parents were doctors.

Was I turning into my mother?

Lily sighed deeply, like I was the most annoying person on Earth. “It’s just for fun.”

“We were trying to see if we could conjure up Daphne.” Ellen’s tone was maddeningly calm, bored, condescending.

Daphne. Daphne. Daphne. I was so sick of hearing about Daphne.

“No more ghosts,” I said to the girls. “Play Monopoly or something.”

“Monopoly? It’s Halloween.” Lily stood. A large black skull ring sat like a lollipop on her middle finger.