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Lenna lets out a whimper. Every cell in her body wants to run to her baby. The helplessness she feels is debilitating. She can barely breathe.
“I don’t understand,” Sarah whispers. “You’re really Gillian’s…daughter?”
“I always knew I was adopted,” Coral says. “My parents told me when I was a little kid, maybe four or five. I had a good childhood, don’t get me wrong. My parents were great—loving, gave me everything anyone could want. But they told me nothing about my birth mother. Which, like, Iget.But I knew I could search for mymom when I turned eighteen, and I had a feeling they had the paperwork somewhere. So I snooped. I was fifteen. That’s when I found her name. Gillian Winters. She was seventeen when she had me. I don’t know the exact circumstances, but she was from this real churchy part of the state, so I can’t imagine her parents were pleased.”
Sarah breathes out. Rhiannon makes a little whimper. “My mom was eighteen when she had me. Young mothers—it’s hard.”
“Cry me a river,” Coral says, bored. “Anyway. I looked Gillian up online. She only had an Instagram account, and though it was private, I could see her profile picture. I just knew she was my mom. It’s hard to say how—our hair is the same, but it was more than that. Afeeling.I requested permission to view the account, not that I said who I was right away. She granted me permission, thank God. I was able to read her posts—and her comments. So many people loved her. She bolstered a lot of people. I read the posts about social anxiety…about a roommate who was mean to her, S; and a best friend who took her for granted, L; and a total bitch named R. I didn’t even know who you all were at first—that came later. It was heartbreaking, reading about how difficult it was for her to navigate the world. Funny enough, I had the same problems. The same anxieties.
“I wanted to reach out to her, but I was afraid to send her a message. It took me months to work up the courage, but when I did, I got no reply. I was crushed. I sent another, and then one more basically spelling it out.Stillno reply. Know why? Because she’d already fallen into a fuckingcanyon.I found out on her Instagram account, actually—her readers were talking about it.Mourningher. They said her death wasn’t an accident or suicide, and I didn’t think so, either. She was striving for things. She wouldn’t throw it all away. So I went back through her page, especially her recent posts. I kept reading about L and R and S. I needed to knowwho you were. I was able to break into her GillianAnxietyBabe Instagram account—she didn’t even have two-factor authentication.ThenI was able to get into her email…which told me a lot. I got Sadie’s name and, Lenna, you were all over her messages. Rhiannon was a little harder to track down, but I worked backward through the list of magazine employees. Et voilà,” she adds, stretching out her arms triumphantly. “She tried so hard, but you pushed her away again and again. It also hinted that maybe she tried desperate measures to make sure you stayed friends—especially you, Lenna. She cared about you so much. All she wanted was for you to be happy. But you didn’t care.”
“I did care!” Lenna cries. “But I was confused. She went into my phone. Sent texts as me. She lied to make me get my friend in trouble.”
“She only did it because she cared about you.”
Lenna blinks. There’s probably no negotiating. Better just to agree with Coral. But also, Coral is sort of right, in a way. She’s thought plenty about Gillian and her motivations, her misguided protectiveness. “You’re right. I failed to see that. I failed to seeher,I think. I should have asked about her past more. I should have given her more grace.” Her voice cracks. “I’m sorry, Coral. You don’t know how sorry I’ve felt since she died. Itruinedme, basically.”
Coral sniffs. “Poor you. Got married. Had a child. From my perspective, your life doesn’t seem so bad.”
“But I still think about it all the time.” Lenna swallows hard. “Can I please have my baby? Please, Coral.”
“Not yet,” Coral says.
“Let her see her baby,” Sarah croaks. “And, Coral, you should have reached out to me. You could have stayed with me. We could have talked about all of this.”
“Couldwe have, now?” Coral snickers. “And would you have told me that you were the one who killed her?”
Sarah’s mouth hangs open. Coral’s smile is knowing. Lenna tries to understand how shecouldknow the truth. Maybe it isn’t so hard to figure out. Lenna glances at Sarah, thinking of the night before, their confessions in the darkness. Coral easily could have been hanging around, listening.
“I listened in on your little conversation yesterday,” Coral explains, as if reading Lenna’s mind. “But even before that, I had my suspicions,” she continues. “I was the anonymous tipster who pressured the police to question you in the first place.”
“Oh.” Sarah sounds sick. “Oh God.”
“I wasn’t the only one who thought it. All of her followers were saying the same thing. But I couldn’t believe they let you go. Some alibi! It still didn’t seem right. I tried to report Lenna, too, but at that point, the cops had already deemed the fall an accident. They didn’t want to open the case back up. So I decided to bring you here. I wantedanswers.I knew one of you was at fault, I just didn’t know who. But now I have my answer. I have a recording of everything you two said, by the way.” She points at Sarah and Lenna. “Just in case you try and wriggle out of it.”
Coral smiles. “I wonder what everyone here would think. Marjorie wouldn’t be very pleased.”
“So Marjorie isn’t in on this?” Rhiannon asks.
“Nah. All she wants is money.”
“Youpaid my fees,” Rhiannon says miserably. “How?”
“I have a trust fund from my parents.” Coral smiles. “Put it to good use.”
“And then you made me recruit Sarah and Lenna?”
Lenna twists around to stare at Rhiannon. “You were made torecruitus?”
“Now, now, Rhiannon didn’t know,” Coral scolds. “She had no other choice—she needed the money, and she has no rights to her baby outside these walls.”
Rhiannon turns guiltily to Lenna. “Teddy’s my mother’s. That’s where I went, suddenly, when I left LA. My mom…she didn’t try and kill me when I was a kid. She’s a shitty person, but she didn’t do that. I didn’t know how to tell you.”
Lenna looks away. “Sarah and I found a photo in your room of you and this woman—we were trying to figure out where you’d gone. We thought it might be her in the picture, but we weren’t sure. There was a message on the back.” She glances at Coral. She can only guess Coral was the one who wrote that creepy note about being the only one who knew whose baby Teddy really was.
“But, Rhiannon,” Sarah protests. “You could have fixed things—custody of Teddy, all of that. There are ways. You didn’t have to come here. Or bring us here.”
“I didn’t force her,” Coral reminds them. “Rhiannon wanted to come.”
