3:07—Megan, her hair freshly streaked at sixteen, returning home and upset, as she’d been fired from her first job at the Burger Hut because she’d been found smoking weed in the parking lot with an older boy. “It’s just not fair,” she’d complained over and over.

3:42—Megan, an adult, crying wretchedly and begging Rebecca to take her in as her boyfriend had taken all their money and the rent was due on their expensive town house.

4:11—Megan, just this year, a gleam in her eye, admitting she was “in love” with James Cahill and was moving to Riggs Crossing to be with him. She hadn’t meant to hurt Rebecca, not really, it had “just happened.”

Rebecca had hated her sister then.

Had sworn she’d never help her again.

And now—Megan might be dead. Rebecca had to face that damning fact. Ever since learning about Megan’s car being found abandoned in a mountain cabin, the deep-seated fear that Megan was no longer alive had been gnawing at her, chasing away any chance of sleep.

“Enough!” Rebecca said aloud, sitting upright and flinging off the covers. She threw herself out of bed and felt a lump the size of Montana in her throat, her eyes stinging as tears threatened.

She hadn’t realized how much she’d believed that Megan would be found alive, possibly injured, but alive! Now, though, with the discovery of Megan’s abandoned car, it seemed as if Megan was truly gone, as if she were dead.

Don’t give up hope. You don’t know that!

Until they find her body.

Oh. God.

She had to do something.

She couldn’t just sit in this hotel room and wait for news, cling onto a little thread of hope and pray that the police would locate her sister.

What if Megan were still alive? There was still a chance, right? If so, Rebecca had to find her.

She stalked to the small bathroom, used the toilet, and twisted on the shower. She thought of the two women who lived here and had been found murdered. Had the same fate happened to Megan?

Don’t go there!

Angrily, she threw off her oversized T-shirt and kicked off her underpants. Then she stepped under the shower’s hot spray and closed her eyes, the water stinging against her skin before washing over her. The pressure from her mother was unrelenting. She’d have to do some detecting on her own because she was the one who understood her sister better than anyone else. She thought about the last time she’d tried to snoop and how James had caught her in his house. She’d have to be more careful, just find out something—anything—to point the police in the right direction.

As she lathered her body, she wondered, who had the most to gain with Megan out of the way?

The simple answer was: Sophia Russo.