Around them came the festive, slightly mournful sounds of an evening at the end of summer: the tinkling of ice in glasses, bursts of uproarious laughter, a hint of seize-the-day mania. The bar stools faced the salt marshes, and the windows were open so that the smells of Plum Island came wafting in. Far, far in the distance, if you squinted and tilted your head just right, you could almost see the Pink House, which would be turning luminous and mysterious under the last rays of the setting sun.

“That’s what I figured,” said Sherri. “This is a really big problem for me, Alexa. Really big.”

“I know.” Alexa looked around the bar desperately, but nobody could save her from this conversation.

“You can’t ever, ever say anything that you know about us out loud, do you understand me?” Sherri’s voice was cold—Siberian.

“I know,” said Alexa. “I won’t. I never will. I swear. And I’m so sorry. I’m so, so, so sorry.” She opened her hands and then closed them into fists. She didn’t know what else she could say.

“The diary is gone,” Sherri said. “I destroyed it, and then I talked to Katie about never writing anything like that down again. Ever. She simply can’t.”

“No,” agreed Alexa. “She can’t.”

“I trusted you,” said Sherri. “In my home, and with my child. I trusted you, when we were new here, and when we were most vulnerable. And we were really vulnerable, Alexa. We still are. We’ll be vulnerable for the rest of our lives.”

“I know,” said Alexa.

“Now here’s what I have to ask you,” said Sherri. “And I need you to answer honestly. Does anyone else know? Did you tell anyone?”

Here Alexa found herself knee-deep in moral muck. She thought of Cam, the most trustworthy, most honest person she’d ever known, who’d wanted to un-know the truth about Katie and Sherri the second he learned it. He wouldn’t have told anyone. She knew that with absolute certainty. If there was anyone who would take a secret like that to the grave, it was Cam.

Alexa shook her head.

“I need to hear you say it out loud. If you told anyone, Katie and I are in too much danger to stay here. We’ll have to move away, we’ll have to start all over again. New names, new hair color, new everything. I don’t want to do that to Katie. She finally feels settled here.” Sherri’s voice tripped. “But I’ll do it if I have to. I’ll do anything to keep Katie safe. So I need to know right now, Alexa, if you told anyone else about what you read in that diary.”

Alexa thought of Dave Matthews and her heart wrenched once again: The wicked lies we tell to keep us safe from the pain.