Chapters (97)
- Cover
- Back Cover Text
- Praise
- Booklist
- Dedication
- Epigraph
- One
- Two
- Three
- Four
- Five
- Six
- Seven
- Eight
- Nine
- Ten
- Eleven
- Twelve
- Thirteen
- Fourteen
- Fifteen
- Sixteen
- Seventeen
- Eighteen
- Nineteen
- Twenty
- Twenty-One
- Twenty-Two
- Twenty-Three
- Twenty-Four
- Twenty-Five
- Twenty-Six
- Twenty-Seven
- Twenty-Eight
- Twenty-Nine
- Thirty
- Thirty-One
- Thirty-Two
- Thirty-Three
- Thirty-Four
- Thirty-Five
- Thirty-Six
- Thirty-Seven
- Thirty-Eight
- Thirty-Nine
- Forty
- Forty-One
- Forty-Two
- Forty-Three
- Forty-Four
- Forty-Five
- Forty-Six
- Forty-Seven
- Forty-Eight
- Forty-Nine
- Fifty
- Fifty-One
- Fifty-Two
- Fifty-Three
- Fifty-Four
- Fifty-Five
- Fifty-Six
- Fifty-Seven
- Fifty-Eight
- Fifty-Nine
- Sixty
- Sixty-One
- Sixty-Two
- Sixty-Three
- Sixty-Four
- Sixty-Five
- Sixty-Six
- Sixty-Seven
- Sixty-Eight
- Sixty-Nine
- Seventy
- Seventy-One
- Seventy-Two
- Seventy-Three
- Seventy-Four
- Seventy-Five
- Seventy-Six
- Seventy-Seven
- Seventy-Eight
- Seventy-Nine
- Eighty
- Eighty-One
- Eighty-Two
- Eighty-Three
- Eighty-Four
- Eighty-Five
- Eighty-Six
- Eighty-Seven
- Eighty-Eight
- Eighty-Nine
- Acknowledgments & A Personal Note
- Excerpt
Those girls, The Skull Sisters, killed the Tullock family because they felt they could…and for their monstrous and merciless crime of killing four people, two of them children, how did the court respond? With the utmost mercy, for in the scale of the killers’ young lives they paid a pittance for taking those of four innocents. And now, far from a cemetery with four headstones, they’re living anonymously as free adults.
Yes, Torrie agreed. Justice was not served. Instead they received new lives, far from the graves they left behind in Eternity. Well, twenty years was enough. The bill was past due.
Torrie’s laptop pinged with an email from her uncle.
Hi Torrie: Hope all is well. We miss you. We wanted to let you know that an author, Benjamin Grant, is writing a book on the case. We’ve agreed to participate to ensure the family has a voice. He’d like to talk to you. Of course, the decision is yours. Let me know. Lynn sends her love.
Uncle Paul
Torrie’s eyebrows rose a little.
Benjamin Grant, the celebrated true-crime author? My word, how the stars have aligned.
She glanced at the neat stack of printouts from the project as she considered the request and then typed her response.
Thank you, Uncle Paul: I have nothing to say to Mr. Grant at this time.
All my love to you and Aunt Lynn,
Torrie
Sixty-One
Cielo Valle, Orange County, California
Present day
Kayla couldn’t stand it.
Her unease about Emma was growing, and Dad was too deeply in love with her to get it.
She should’ve told him that she’d found Emma’s journal, but after the close call with the girl on the bike, they got distracted and she lost her nerve.
Now, as night fell, Kayla was on her bed in her room, her door shut, Tug at her feet, laptop on her lap, searching online.
Kayla liked Emma but couldn’t shake her growing feeling that her stepmother was hiding something, something big. No matter how she tried, Kayla was unable to find anything about a fatal fire at Tony’s Diner in Beltsville, Maryland. And she still hadn’t heard back from Emma’s college in Indiana.
I know if I keep pushing this, I’m going to piss Dad off even more. He already wants to send me back to Doctor Hirsch. But maybe if I can get Dad proof that I’m right, he’ll see for himself.
Kayla’s frustration with herself and her suspicions about Emma intensified as she ticked off the list of Emma’s strangeness.
How she got all superembarrassed about being on TV. Then there were those words Kayla had memorized from Emma’s hidden journal: “No one knows the truth about me, that I—”
Then how Emma practically went into shock when Dad said his new book was on a case in Eternity; then her nightmare the other night…