“If Daphne were here, too, we’d all be in trouble. Who’s who? It’s so easy to get people mixed up in the dark, isn’t it? And who knows, maybe she will show up. It is Halloween, after all. Her night.”

It was a teenager’s dramatic declaration, but it worked. The fear crept into my bones, and I imagined a ghost hovering somewhere nearby. I jerked my head around, half expecting to encounter a floating bride with a broken neck.

“We all make mistakes, don’t we?” Ellen asked. “Some worse than others. Like Daphne’s mistake, for example, in trusting everyone. In following them when they lured her out here to the bridge. It was so easy to do.”

“Can we talk about this somewhere else? It’s dangerous up here,” I said.

“I think this is the perfect place, actually,” Ellen said. “A great setting for a TV special, don’t you think?”

It hit me then. Ellen was the one feeding Maggie Lewis. Her source. Ellen knew what the Ivies had done.

“Ellen?” Lily asked. “Maybe we should go down?”

“Wait.” She turned back to me. “Don’t you love this, Theresa? You mothers like to play with fire, don’t you? It’s fun, until someone gets hurt.”

“I don’t know—”

“No, just shut up. Just shut up for once and listen. I’ve already told Lily the truth, that we’re sisters. We share the same father, after all.”

Ellen thought Lily was Greg’s daughter—with me? Is that what the card had been referring to? She wanted revenge against me for sleeping with her dad?

I could see the confusion and fear in Lily’s eyes and wanted nothing but to run to her. But I couldn’t, not yet.

First I needed to know what Ellen had done. The extent of the damage she’d caused.

“So you’re the one who sent me that card,” I said. I bet Ellen had designed the Ouija board messages, too, and it explained all the hostility from her. Why a senior would be hanging out with a freshman.

“Even if I hadn’t overheard Dad talking to you, even if I hadn’t seen the email you sent asking for your favor, I would’ve remembered you. The bee sting. I was scared. I thought you were dying.”

I felt a sudden surge of anger toward this girl. What the hell did she know? The audacity, to insert herself in our lives this way.

“You have no idea what you’re talking about, Ellen.” My tone was even. Direct. I stepped forward. “I would’ve thought the valedictorian would be better about getting her facts straight.”

Ellen’s smirk slipped a little at that. I took another step forward, close enough now that I could grab Lily’s hand, if she’d give it to me.

“Your dad is not Lily’s dad.”