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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

Greg grabbed my shoulders. Hard. Fear sliced through me. We were here, alone. How long would it take for someone to come if I screamed?

“No, Theresa. Stop. You’re not making sense.”

Greg released me and drew back. “Jesus Christ. I’m sorry, Theresa. It’s just—this is all getting twisted around. There was nothing going on with me and Daphne. I swear. She was...a complicated soul. I liked her. I thought she was a good kid. But I was not sleeping with her, for god’s sakes. And I’m certainly not Lily’s biological father. He was some kid, lived out in western Virginia, where Daphne grew up. I have the goddamn papers, Theresa.”

I stared at him, unsure. “I just thought...”

“You thought I was fooling around with everyone?” He laughed bitterly. “That’s what everyone thinks, apparently.”

My phone vibrated. I pulled it from my pocket, and the paper from the Ouija board fluttered out. Greg chased it.

Lily had sent me a text.

Since you didn’t tell me the truth, I found someone who did.

Do not try to find me.

Greg handed me back the paper. I felt the color draining from my face.

“What’s wrong?” he asked.

I looked down at the paper. He’d handed it back to me upside down. I saw it now, what I hadn’t seen before.

Lily hadn’t written WOW. She’d written MOM.

There’d been no return address on the envelope with the baby invitation. No stamp. Whoever had delivered it had walked up to my mailbox, casually tucked it in.

And now they’d told Lily about the adoption.

Maybe someone who wanted revenge because she’d realized I was the one who’d stolen her husband from her. Who had been biding her time to use this perfect piece of evidence against me.

“Are you sure Jackie is in New York, Greg?”

“Why?”

“Could she be here? In Ivy Woods?” The shed. Someone locking me in.

“Not that I’m aware of. She hasn’t been back in a decade.”

“Did she know about Lily’s adoption? Could she have sent me the card?”

“Jesus, Theresa. Why would Jackie send that to you?”

A woman scorned. How easy it would be to get to Lily. To tell her a story. Destroy the life I’d worked so hard for.

“I’ve got to go, Greg.”

Moving here had been a dream.

But I’d ended up in the middle of a nightmare.

HALLOWEEN