“What happened, Jackie? That night? My parents . . .” Tears burn rivers down my face as I beg her to tell me.

“I found Roosevelt at the bar, drunk. I dragged him out and put him in his car. I was taking him somewhere we could talk.”

“And you drove over the bridge?”

She nods. “He was yelling at me, and he grabbed the wheel and we swerved into the other lane.” She meets my gaze. “All I saw was headlights before we slammed into the other car, and we both went over the bridge.”

There’s so much information coming at me, I don’t even know how to process it. Jackie keeps going.

“We hit the water, and everything happened so fast. I panicked. I wasn’t going to die trying to save the man who propositioned his own daughter, so I left him in the car.” Her shoulders shake.

“What about my parents? How could you leave them?”

“I saw the car go under. The river was moving so fast, I couldn’t get to them. I almost drowned too. I didn’t think I was going to make it out.”

“You didn’t even try to save them?”

She breaks down into sobs. “I couldn’t. I’m so sorry, Whitney. It was all my fault. I never should have gone anywhere near Roosevelt Riscoff. They shouldn’t even have been on the bridge that night, but your daddy went looking for your mom, thinking she was cheating, but instead he found her cleaning rooms at the Wham Bam Motel.”

I remember the night my aunt showed up on my parents’ doorstep, dripping wet, after Lincoln and I had gotten into a fight. I thought she was soaked from the rain . . . but she’d been in the river, escaping the scene of the accident that killed my parents.

“But my mom . . . they said she swam to the bank somehow. That’s why everyone thought she was driving Roosevelt’s car. You let everyone think that!”

Jackie’s already tortured expression twists. “I’m so sorry, Whit, so damned sorry. I’ve tried every day to protect you any way I could. I owed that to you. That’s why I killed Ricky and Sylvia. I didn’t want them to hurt you anymore.”

My heart jumps into my throat.

“What? What did you say about Ricky?”

Jackie squeezes her eyes closed for a beat before looking up at me. “Cricket ran into the house crying after you called her from the safe room, saying he’d threatened you. I knew I had to do something, so I was on a flight within an hour. I found the party from the posts on the internet.”

Oh my God. This can’t be real. This can’t be true. I listen in disbelief as Jackie continues.

“I sneaked inside, pretending to be part of the catering staff, and found Ricky. There were girls all over him. When one of them went to the bathroom, I told her I had some even better drugs for her to give him. She was too messed up to ask questions. That was the first time I used the fentanyl.”