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“You,”she said. “Where’s Brandon?”
Trina laughed a little, and Liza remembered how fakely sweet she’d always been, how there had always been something dark behind her gaze.
“Your Brandon’s long gone.”
“I don’t understand,” Liza said, tears threatening. The texts, the online stalking. Who had it been? Then finally she got it.
Trina. It had been Trina all along. But why?
“You have something thatIwant, Liza. Brandon moved on long ago. He probably doesn’t even remember your little fling.”
Trina held up her phone to reveal the text chain Liza thought had been with Brandon.
“Whatdo you want?” asked Liza, wrapping her arms around her middle. “Is this blackmail? Because whatever it is—you can have it. Just leave us alone.”
Her hand rested on the gun. She wasn’t even sure how to use it. Was there a safety, was it engaged? She knew she should take it out, at least. Point it. But she felt so weak, so sick. She quaked now with fear.
“Do you know what your husband is? The things he’s done?” asked Trina.
Liza didn’t answer. Shedidknow Mako and all his many flaws. The rumors about him at Red World. The truth was that she didn’t care who he was in the world outside, only who he was to her. She forgave him everything else.
“Why do you stay with him? All he does is cheat and lie,” said Trina. “He’s still sleeping with her, you know? Cricket.”
A wave of pain and nausea almost doubled her over. She knew. Of course, she did.
“What did he do to you, Trina?” asked Liza. That’s what this was, wasn’t it? “How can we make it right?”
Trina shook her head. “Why are you protecting him? Why do women always enable and apologize, cover for monsters. You, Cricket, Hannah. Why?”
Liza didn’t have time to answer. Finally, she found her strength and drew the gun. But Trina was on her, the gun knocked quickly from her hand, falling useless onto the floor. Joshua came up fast behind her. It all seemed floating, unreal—his strength, the coldness in the other woman’s eyes. What were they going to do with her?
When Joshua spoke, Liza heard fear in his voice.
“Wait,” he said. “Don’t, Trina. You promised.”
Within the volume of her other pain, her terror, she almost didn’t feel the knife in her abdomen, until she was screaming with it, and Joshua was putting a big, calloused hand over her mouth. The world started fading, pain a siren drowning out everything else.
They’d have heard her, wouldn’t they? Someone would come to save her, the baby.
“No one’s coming for you,” Trina said, as if reading her mind. “I took your things. Left a note for Mako. He’ll think you left him. That you are finally sick of his shit.”
“No,” she gasped.
Liza leaned hard against Joshua, her own weight too much for her legs.
“I’m sorry. I’m sorry,” he said, his lips next to her ear.
She tasted his skin. And she was falling and falling. “I don’t understand. What do you want from me?” Her own words sounded faint, distant.
There must be an answer. Trina had been stalking her, pretending to be Brandon. She knew about Liza’s affair, her pregnancy. She’d lured Liza away from the group. She’d obviously been lingering in the periphery of their lives, watching, for months, longer. She’d booked this trip. Was it her plan all along, to get them out here and destroy them one by one? Was it just revenge against Mako? No, she wanted to hurt Liza, too. Take her baby. Kill her. Why?
She was insane. A destroyer.
The room darkened, or seemed to. The sounds around her grew fuzzier.
I’m so sorry, she told her baby.I wasn’t strong enough to protect you even now. I wouldn’t have been a good mom if I couldn’t even get you this far.
Joshua lowered her gently to the ground.
