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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

Because of the drugs and drinking or maybe because we were all just awful people, we left her there. No one called the police or an ambulance.

The next morning, I woke up on the couch in Rachel’s apartment. Only Alexa was there. I called everyone, trying to figure out what happened. That’s when Taylor told me, over the phone, that they were “taking care of it.”

Alexa didn’t remember anything about the night before and kept asking where Adele was. I didn’t know what to tell her.

Two hours later, they all returned. Taylor, Kim, Rachel. I realized then that they hadn’t slept at all. They had gone back to find Adele’s body almost immediately. Kim made it clear to everyone that no one could say a word. That we would all be kicked out of school, Rachel would lose her job and be prosecuted, we could go to jail. Our futures would be over. Alexa asked, “But where is Adele?”

That’s when the story changed. Alexa really didn’t remember, and Rachel used that. She said, “She went home last night, don’t you remember?”

And Alexa didn’t remember anything, but she trusted us.

Rachel took me outside. She told me that Adele’s death was an accident and our lives would be ruined if anyone found out the truth.

“It’s better this way,” she told me. I believed her. I am so sorry, but I believed her.

Rachel and Kim came up with a story that was partly true. That Taylor, Adele, and I had lunch with Adele, and she told us she was leaving that evening for home. We were to all go home and if anyone asked us, we didn’t see her after lunch.

Taylor, who’d spent all night with them, had already bought into the story. She had been my best friend, she was scared about getting in trouble, she believed everything Rachel told her—that she would lose her scholarship, her future, her freedom. I was the only one who objected. And...I ended up going along with it.

I let them convince me. For three long years, I let them convince me that we had done the only thing we could have done.

I was wrong. I regret not coming forward three years ago. I hate myself for hurting you, because you didn’t know the truth about your daughter. And if Lucas Vega hadn’t told me how you were suffering, I might never have said a word.

I didn’t know until later that they staged the car accident in New Mexico, or that they had left her body in a mine in Payson. That doesn’t justify anything that we did, but I’m hoping you can find her and give her a proper burial.

I am sorry. I don’t deserve your forgiveness, but I hope that now you can have some peace.

Candace Swain

Forty-Eight

Tuesday