A fluttering.
Movement.
The way my stomach stretched.
The real reason I didn’t return for Becky’s wedding—I was eight months pregnant. I couldn’t go back to Blue Gil like that. I hadn’t told my best friend that I’d carried on with the pregnancy.
More pain.
Artificial light assaults my vision as I force my eyelids to open.
“Jillian.”
Voices.
Sadness overwhelms me with the realization that Grandma Sue is gone. She passed away the night of our talk. My dad still blames me for his loss of not only his mother, but also the man he knew as his father.
I blink as my torso is moved upward.
I don’t look beyond myself, seeing my own body, arms, hands, a blanket covering my legs. Yet I know with certainty it’s me. I’m viewing myself in a strange, detached reality. As voices around me grow into a chorus, I wiggle my fingers, feeling the strange sensation of an IV attached to the top of my hand.
I see the small tube. Yet my attention goes lower.
The blanket moves as I wiggle my toes.
Synapses ignite like the flow of electricity. I don’t know where I’ve been or what happened, yet I know I’m here. Wherever here is.
I lift my chin to the blue eyes staring my way.
“Mom.” The title comes out in a hoarse and crackling voice that I don’t recognize. I lift my hand to my throat, realizing it’s sore and tender.
“Shh,” my mother soothes.
She’s with me, as she was when I brought a healthy baby boy into the world, and as she was when I signed away my rights, praying I’d chosen a loving home.
Mom was with me, as she was until I pushed her and my past away.
“Mom,” I try again.
It’s then that I see the face behind her. Liv’s smile is wide, yet her blue eyes are tired with dark circles.
“What...hap...pened?” I ask.
“You’re safe,” my mother says. “You scared us.”
Chapter
Forty
“Welcome back toCrime Daily Podcast. It’s Friday. I’m Kenzi.”
“And I’m Ali. Let’s talk about Blue Gil.”
“The coach’s funeral was a week ago. And that little town is a hotbed of heartbreaking news. I think we should take a trip to Blue Gil, Michigan.”
“I agree, Kenzi. Last Friday they laid a beloved coach to rest. Sunday morning, two girls went missing.”
“One was found alive and injured. The other dead. Now, we learned that a third person has been assaulted.”
