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“Where the fuck have you been?” he snarls.
I tuck into the ladies’ room of the church’s basement, bending low to make sure all the stalls are empty. “I’ve been out of town.”
“Whatever. This still needs to happen tomorrow because I’ve got no idea how long I have before she changes the password. She’s helping set up some haunted house. I’ll text you the address—just get out by two and let me know when it’s done.”
He hangs up. I put my phone away and enter the meeting, taking the seat Lynn’s saved for me so I can tell an entire room full of people how much I’ve changed.
“I feel like a different person,” I say, and they all fucking believe me.
* * *
The placewhere Lucie’s setting up a haunted house isn’t actually in Elliott Springs but just to its north. It’s one of those glass and cement monstrosities that dwarfs every other home on the street, and the one thing about it that isn’t shiny and new is Lucie’s beat-up Toyota Sienna.
My shoulders sag. Her minivan with the small dent on the left side and an elementary school bumper sticker on the rear window doesn’t exactly screamarchnemesis.
It’s also not the ride of a woman who theoretically doesn’t give a shit about her kids.
My stomach tightens as I climb from my car. I’m nearly to her van when the door opens and she walks out in a pink peacoat and ballet flats, all wide-eyed innocence.
Jeremy was full of shit. This girl isn’t a neglectful parent doing drugs with her kids asleep in the next room. She’s the exact kind of girl Calebshouldhave wound up with in the first place.
She freezes when she sees me and I take a deep breath as the truth of the situation finally hits home: this woman has two young kids and a psychotic ex-husband, and all I’ve done is give her something more to fear.Jesus, Kate.
I approach slowly, as if she’s a rabbit who’ll hop away at my first errant move. “Don’t worry. I’m only here to help you.”
She remains frozen. I suppose thatdidsound like something I’d say if I was here to kill her.
“I’d have called, but Jeremy might be tracking your phone. He seems to have a bunch of your passwords.”
Her eyes glisten with frustrated tears. “I can’t believe this is still happening. I’ve switched phones twice.”
Jesus. What else has he been doing all along? Why did I believe a word out of his mouth? I knew he was untrustworthy the same way I knew Kayleigh was untrustworthy, but I let myself buy into their bullshit because I wanted allies.
I pull the flash drive out of my pocket and hand it to her. “He’s calling in a tip to the police in about forty-five minutes, when you’re on your way home with your kids, because he believes I’m here planting drugs in your car. He thinks if you lose the kids, you’ll come back to him. I recorded him laying out the plan.”
“Oh my God,” she whispers. “I can’t believe you did this for me.”
I don’t correct her, even though helping her was never at the top of my priorities list. I mostly just thought I might need a recording to blackmail him with if he tried to threaten me into helping him. But even then, I half expected I’d wind up exactly where I am now.
“If I were you, I’d contact the police before the call comes in, so it’s documented and they’re looking for it. He can be arrested immediately for making a false statement, if nothing else.” I reach into my pocket. “And here’s his key to your van.”
She stares at the key in her palm. “I’m speechless. Why are you helping me?”
It’s a question I never even asked myself.
It isn’t because I care about her. It’s not even because I care about her kids or Caleb. It’s simply that it’s the right thing to do. “I guess I’m not quite as evil as Caleb’s implied.”
She shakes her head. “Caleb’s never once said a word against you. Sometimes I wish he would.” She gives me a tentative smile. “You’re a hard act to follow.”
Joy and sadness twine together at once. I never made Caleb happy the way she does, and he never made me happy the way Beck does. But I can still picture a world in which our daughter didn’t die, in which we figured it all out. “Good luck with everything.”
I’m walking back to my car when she finally speaks. “I hope things work out for you and Beck.”
I turn toward her, blowing out a breath to deal with the wound she just re-opened. “There’s nothing going on with me and Beck.”
“Maybe there should be, then,” she says. “He’s been in love with you for a long, long time. Way before you came back.”
I laugh, but it gets caught in my throat, like a sob. “Beck doesn’t evenlikeme, much less love me.”
