“It was about two years ago. Right after we’d gotten out of that brat camp. Like I said, she went into this downward spiral. She was using drugs heavily and I was struggling to stay sober. I had to … I had to stop talking to her. It’s been harder than I ever thought it would be. When I saw your picture a few weeks ago, I thought it was her. I thought she’d cleaned up, but then she wanted to meet me here again and I just couldn’t go through that with her. I couldn’t see her like that. I couldn’t be a part of her life that way. I didn’t meet her. And now I wish like hell I could go back. Maybe if I had been here …”

“Did you say two years ago?” I closed my eyes, feeling a little dizzy. “I think we’d better go.”

For two years, for our entire friendship, Kori’d known my mother was having an affair with her father.

I knew and I didn’t tell you …

My mom and Kori’s father. It explained a lot. Why Kori became friends with me. The way she’d questioned Mom on spring break. Why Mom banned her from our house and me from hers. Why we had to leave the hospital so the family could have some privacy. The way she acted at Kori’s funeral—sitting in the back, not going through the receiving line. The dinner with Doc Ramsey when the Kitzlers came in. Wow.

I’d blamed myself for Kori getting into Parker’s car and leaving the party. I blamed myself for letting Kori go, letting her die. And all this time it was my mother she’d gone to see.

“Where have you been?” Mom demanded before I was even through the doorway.

“Funny, I was going to ask you the same thing.” I pushed past her and headed down the hall toward my room.

She caught my arm and stopped me. “I’ve been worried sick. I called your friends. Lexi didn’t know where you were.”

I tossed my bag into my room. “That’s ‘cuz I wasn’t with her.”

“Who were you with? That guy?”

“Nope,” I said, knowing she meant Anthony. Knowing Lexi couldn’t hold it together and had tucked tail. Which was exactly why I didn’t tell Lexi about Shay.

“Tell me the truth, Serena. Where have you been? Who have you been with?”

“Just out,” I said as I leaned against the doorframe.

“Lexi told me you didn’t go to the movies with them last night. She told me you were seeing a guy. I know it all, so you better just come clean.”