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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

Bettina bent over and picked up a small twig, snapped it in half. “It’s not like we know her ex-husband well enough anymore to walk up to him and be like, ‘Hey, have you heard from Jackie lately?’”

That made me smile. But it also gave me an idea. Of course.

“No, but I think I know someone who does.”

TWENTY

Theresa

The Barn felt different when no one else was there. It took me a few minutes to figure out how to open the door. I had to use Kendra’s key to remove the padlock and then slide a plank from a metal latch, which looked way more complicated than it was.

Alice wasn’t home, but when I’d texted her about stopping by for the leftover decorations, she’d told me to come anyway. I hoped to surprise Lily with extra gravestones and a glow-in-the-dark zombie that I didn’t think anyone else had claimed. And I needed to keep myself busy while I waited to hear about the job at the Post. I felt pretty good about it, but waiting was the hardest part. All of the Ivies had texted me to check how it went, which was sweet, but also added pressure. Were they genuinely concerned as friends? Or was it a test to determine if I was worthy of my pin? I couldn’t tell, but whichever it was, I couldn’t afford to disappoint.

I pulled open the heavy door, which scraped on the concrete pad, and stepped inside. It was cold and dark. I found a small rock to shove under the door to keep it from swinging shut behind me and cutting off the outside light. How had Alice turned on the lights in here, again? I activated my phone’s flashlight, found the chain, and tugged.

The Barn wasn’t a place I wanted to spend a ton of time. For one thing, hanging on a hook right next to the door was Alice’s beekeeper’s suit, and the big hat and netting looked rather intimidating. Sharp garden tools and the random Halloween stuff that remained made it feel like the perfect horror movie setting.

Many of the decorations we’d sorted through together were gone now, and a bunch of empty boxes were stacked against the wall. I spotted more gravestones for Lily’s cemetery and dragged those out into the yard. But there was still plenty of other junk left. I sifted through boxes—lots of fake spider web material, black tablecloths, an unopened bag of paper lanterns. Half-burned candles, pumpkin-carving tools. A hideous rubber mask of a man with a scar across his cheek. Take whatever you want—honestly. Get it out of there, there’s too much, Alice had said. But there was nothing that would fit Lily’s theme.