Rita blocked it with her body. “You’ve got a very expensive ride here, Emma. You’ve got a big fancy house, a very nice life. You’re doing very well, aren’t you?”

Emma looked at Rita. “Get out of my way.”

“Or what? You’ll call a cop?” Rita laughed. “We’re handcuffed in that regard, aren’t we, sister?”

“What do you want?”

“I’ll make it quick and simple. Twenty years ago, you betrayed us.”

“What?”

“We had a pact and you broke it. Now it’s time you made up for it.”

“Get away from me.”

“Your two sisters aren’t doing so well. The years have been agony for us—you have no idea. We want your help.”

“We?” Expecting to see another woman, Emma looked around but saw no one. “I don’t see anyone else.”

“Be assured, both of your sisters have found you and both of us demand compensation for violating our sacred bond.”

“Compensation?”

“Your husband, with his books, his movie deals, is worth millions. All we want is one hundred thousand each. That’s it.”

“What? You’re out of your mind! I can’t give you a penny.”

“Give us the help we need, or everyone will know the truth and your princess life will be over. We know everything about you. Imagine the shame and disgrace for your husband.”

A long, intense moment passed with Emma staring at Rita. “Have you been threatening me and my family?”

“Are you listening? We made a pact. We swore a blood oath to share with each other.”

“We were stupid kids!”

“It was real! What we did sure as hell was real, and our pact is real, too. So you either share your fortune, or you’ll share our pain.”

Emma stepped closer to Rita. “Don’t threaten me or my family.”

The two women stared at each other.

“We’re not going to wait. We know how to reach you. And we will reach you,” Rita said before walking away.

Emma was rooted to the pavement, her heart hammering against her chest, unaware that in the distance the sun glinted on the lens of a camera that had made a video recording of the entire exchange between the two convicted murderers.

Sixty-Four

Cielo Valle, Orange County, California
Present day

Slipping from Emma’s shaking fingers, the egg carton fell to the floor and splayed open with casualties. Four, to be exact.

Emma stared. It had to be four broken eggs.

She’d been putting the groceries away with such fury while processing the incident in the Trader Joe’s parking lot, she’d lost her grip. Seeing that girl—the ring, that woman, a ghost from her past—dragging her, and now her family, into a nightmare.

Did it really happen?

Emma wiped the floor vigorously, as if trying to erase an indelible stain, tossed the waste into the disposal.

All these years. After all these years. Why? Why? Why?