They both go down in a crash as I stagger toward the door, stumbling, falling, continuing at a crawl.

“Run, Tess,” Sean calls. “Run.”

I half fall down the stairs and I’m scrabbling for the front door when I hear the sirens. I run out as the first uniformed officer reaches the house. Max’s car is gone.

“They’re upstairs,” I shout. “Stop them. Stop them—they’re killing each other.” My legs give way and I collapse on the gravel. I lay my face against the hard, sharp stones and I cry.

Detective Levinson gets out of another car. He comes over and helps me up, his grip gentle, but he doesn’t let me go when I’m standing.

“Tess Cooper—I’m arresting you for the murder of Greg Lewis…” As he talks and puts me in handcuffs, I keep muttering the same thing over and over again.

It wasn’t me.

It wasn’t me.

Black spots float before my eyes and Bella is with me, whispering for me to wake up, but I am. I’m finally awake but no one sees. No one will listen.

Chapter 40

Chapter 40

They take me to the hospital even though I insist I’m fine. But even as I say it, I’m shaking, unable to stand without help. I can hear the slur in my words and in the end I stop protesting as they help me into the ambulance, still handcuffed, a uniformed officer in the ambulance with me.

Dad arrives before the police, but the uniformed officer standing outside my door won’t let him in. I hear him arguing and it makes me cry because it’s the same hospital they brought me to after Bella died.

Detective Levinson comes in, looking grave.

“It wasn’t me,” I say. “I swear—whatever Max and Lena have been saying—it wasn’t me. It must have been them.” I stop, swallow. “Or Bella.”

This time, I tell him everything. About the secret garden, about Bella and Greg and me. About the lies I told that set her off.

My voice is hoarse by the end of it and when Detective Levinson starts going over the same questions again, I lay my head on the pillow and cry. Dad comes in with a doctor and they all start arguing.

“You have Sean and Jack at the station,” Dad shouts. “And Tess is going nowhere. Let her recover.”

Detective Levinson glances at me and whatever he sees makes him relent. “Okay, I’ll leave. But I’ll be back in the morning.”

Dad sits in the chair next to the bed after Detective Levinson leaves. He holds my hand and there are tears in his eyes.

“Have they found Max and Lena yet?” I whisper.

Dad shakes his head. “They will.”