I flicked through her photos, the green-eyed monster inside me surging to epic proportions as I saw picture after picture of Lily and Ash. At the beach, a bar, a movie. At a restaurant, ax-throwing, celebrating his birthday. It seemed wherever they went, whatever they did, there was a picture of the two of them smooshed together, her looking up at him with those fucking puppy eyes. It made me sick to think of them spending all this time together when I was here at the house, fretting over Ash’s well-being. This was her fault. He might have left Newdale, but she’d kept him in Maryland. If it hadn’t been for her, he’d have come home.

Standing in the hallway clutching her cell, it took every ounce of willpower I had to not delete her photos or hurl the thing on the floor and watch it shatter into a hundred satisfying pieces. Fingers trembling, I tucked the device into her bag and went back to the garage, where I sat on my bench, picked up a knife and started cutting into a piece of wood, slicing deeper and deeper. As I worked, I thought about the fact Lily had lost her job. It was a strike against me; she no longer had time constraints forcing her back to Maryland. However, from her boss and landlord’s messages it sounded as if she was broke. A point in my favor, something I could, and would, use. A plan of how to get rid of Lily formed in my mind. Her Newdale vacation wouldn’t last. With what I had in mind she’d be gone within the week.

25

ASH

Before Maya left for her shift at the Cliff’s Head, she came into the living room and hugged me first before giving Lily a hesitant embrace. “It’s so nice to see you happy,” she said to me, and I was glad we’d moved past last night’s argument. Given the circumstances, I hadn’t known what to expect when I’d shown up at the house with Lily. I knew Maya felt awkward about her arrival in town, and although I sympathized, I’d decided she’d just have to deal with it.

As I grabbed a fresh pair of jeans and a T-shirt upstairs, the thought of Lily being here in the house with me made me smile, and I headed back to the kitchen, where she stood by the sink with her back to me, staring out the window.