Before he could protest, I left the house and got into my car, the pent-up anger inside me making it hard to breathe. I drove into town, my rage going from boil to simmer and back to boil again when I spotted Lily’s car in front of one of the rooms of the Harbor Inn.

I’d never had any intention of handing the sweater to Fiona, but I knocked on the wrong door at first, disturbing an elderly couple’s game of Scrabble. When Lily finally opened up, red-faced and puffy, I held out her sweater and she snatched it from me.

“You bitch,” she said. “I know what you did.”

“Are you sure you’re okay?” I kept my voice low and soft, as if I were speaking to a child. “If I’m being honest, you sound unhinged.”

“You, honest?” she said, letting out a hollow laugh as she stared at me. “You lied and manipulated us. You fed him those pills to get rid of me, that much is obvious, but I’ve been thinking. Ash thinks his father hated soccer, and I know that’s not true. He clearly remembered the receipt for the Benadryl you said you never bought, but I bet you did. Why would you say those things? What other lies have you been telling him?”

“Nice try. You’re the one who never told him about your past, and—”

“Confabulation my ass. Did you really use up all your allergy medicine, or did you give that to him on the sly, too? I’ve been trying to figure out why you’d warp his truth. Tell him something was a false memory when it wasn’t.”

“You’re sick,” I spat.

“And then it hit me,” she said quietly. “It’s because you don’t want him to remember why he left Newdale because it has something to do with you, doesn’t it? I think I’ll ask around. Take a trip to the drugstores. Ask Fiona about Brad’s love for soccer. Maybe I’ll talk to Keenan. Figure out if you’ve bought clonazepam before. Make no mistake, Maya. Very soon, everybody will know exactly what kind of a manipulative piece of shit liar you really are.”

I stared at her. Lily was more dangerous than I’d thought. Most of us were when we had nothing left to lose, but she’d always been at least two steps behind me. She still was, because I’d prepared for this. Hoped for it, even, if I’m being completely honest. A tingle zipped down my spine and I forced my face to fall for a second or two. I had to let her think she’d got to me, and believed I was scared.