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Back The Sorority Murder Save as PDF
Chapters (61)
  1. Cover
  2. Praise
  3. Dedication
  4. One
  5. Two
  6. Three
  7. Four
  8. Five
  9. From the Missing Journal of Candace Swain
  10. Six
  11. Seven
  12. Eight
  13. Nine
  14. Ten
  15. Eleven
  16. Twelve
  17. From the Missing Journal of Candace Swain
  18. Thirteen
  19. Fourteen
  20. Fifteen
  21. From the Missing Journal of Candace Swain
  22. Sixteen
  23. Seventeen
  24. Eighteen
  25. Nineteen
  26. Twenty
  27. Twenty-One
  28. From the Missing Journal of Candace Swain
  29. Twenty-Two
  30. Twenty-Three
  31. Twenty-Four
  32. Twenty-Five
  33. Twenty-Six
  34. Twenty-Seven
  35. Twenty-Eight
  36. Twenty-Nine
  37. Thirty
  38. Thirty-One
  39. Thirty-Two
  40. Thirty-Three
  41. Thirty-Four
  42. From the Missing Journal of Candace Swain
  43. Thirty-Five
  44. Thirty-Six
  45. Thirty-Seven
  46. Thirty-Eight
  47. From the Journal of Candace Swain
  48. Thirty-Nine
  49. Forty
  50. Forty-One
  51. Forty-Two
  52. Forty-Three
  53. Forty-Four
  54. Forty-Five
  55. Forty-Six
  56. Forty-Seven
  57. Letter Found in the Journal of Candace Swain
  58. Forty-Eight
  59. Acknowledgments
  60. Booklist
  61. Excerpt

Erica Jong said, “I have not ceased being fearful, but I have ceased letting the fear control me.”

I am so scared. Not about doing the right thing, not anymore. I am in control of my decisions for the first time in years. I will no longer be manipulated, lied to, plied with guilt about how doing the right thing is wrong. Told that up is down, right is wrong, wrong is right. I’m so tired.

I am scared that they will stop me. But the only way they can stop me is to kill me.

Twenty-Two

Lucas couldn’t sleep.

Finally, after midnight, he climbed into his old pickup truck and drove over to Taylor James’s house. Regan was confident that Taylor hadn’t sent the threat to him, so he didn’t feel particularly scared to confront her, especially at this hour.

He never told his advisor his real motivation behind the podcast but justified that omission by knowing it was for the right reason. To find the truth.

He should have manned up, as his brother used to tell him when he was indecisive, and confronted Taylor months ago. But being run out of her bar had intimidated him, and the podcast idea seemed much safer—and smarter.

Most bars closed by midnight during the week, and he hoped to catch her when she was coming home. He’d thought about coming in the morning, before his breakfast with Regan, but if she had been working until late he didn’t want to wake her up as it would probably make her less likely to talk.

He turned into her neighborhood, narrowly missing a Jeep driving with only the fog lights on. He flashed at the driver—they were going to get someone killed. Glancing in his rearview mirror, he saw that the driver flicked on his lights.

Lucas drove slowly past Taylor’s house. One light was on in the back of the house, but that didn’t mean she was home. Lucas’s mom didn’t like coming home to a dark house and always left the stove light on. He turned around in a gravel driveway down the street and looked for a place to park where Taylor might not be able to see him when she came home. Then he saw a car in her carport, behind the house. Dammit, she was home; would she even answer the door this late?

He had to try.

Lucas parked in front of her house and got out. He’d been thinking about how to approach her on the drive over, and thought he should tell her who he was and then tell her everything he knew about Candace and why he thought she’d been killed.

What are you hiding, Taylor?