AllFreeNovel
Share Us
“It was wet out that morning.” He sighed. “Lotta people slipping on trails. Mudslides everywhere.”
She got her job back. She was able to drop the lawyer, though she didn’t get back a lot of the retainer she paid him. But still, she felt vulnerable. As much as she could stand it, she perused Gillian’s Instagram page—well, only the posts about her—trying to figureout why Gillian said such terrible, untrue things about Sadie. Had she ever really been Sadie’s friend at all? It was her turn to feel slighted. Despite everything, she and Gillian were close once. It hurt to think Gillian was painting a very different picture of her online. Almost setting her up to be a suspect in her own murder, macabre as that was.
A few weeks later, Sadie was walking in Beverly Hills when she saw a woman with a coat-hanger shoulder slump coming toward her. Her whole body shut down. Was thatLenna?Sadie ducked behind a post, her heart pounding. She couldn’t allow Lenna to see her. On one hand, she suspected that Lenna was the anonymous tipster. Who else could it be? Strange that she’d come forward anonymously, but maybe she didn’t want to get in the middle of things. She was probably disappointed that Sadie had been set free. Sheknewwhat Sadie did.
The woman passed. Her features were thicker. She spoke on the phone in a jocular voice. Sadie was almost disappointed. As much as she didn’t want to face Lenna, it felt like this was the only other person in the world, besides her, who had a personal connection to Gillian. Who actuallycared.Ironic, then, that they’d both been there on the day of her death. That Gillian had betrayed both of them so completely.
It was harder than Sadie expected to go back into work. Her patients were wary of her; seemingly all of them had heard the news. She blamed Gillian. She blamed herself. She even blamed Lenna. Should Sadie confess? Maybe she deserved punishment. Of course she did. She hated herself.
But then. Then, she met the woman who would bring herhere.The person who reminded her about the thing she really wanted: a child. A child who would save her. And at this place, that felt possible. She would have purpose again. She would be redeemed.
Until now.
19
Lenna
October
Present day
“You were there,” Lenna whispers, shielding her baby at her chest. “On that trail. You heard what I said to her. You saw when she threw my phone into the canyon. Right?”
A muscle twitches in Sarah’s cheek. She still hasn’t dropped the knife. Nor has the door opened from inside, nor have any lights been flicked on, even. It breaks Lenna’s heart that Rhiannon could be inside, purposefully decidingnotto help her and her baby.
“Why didn’t you tell anyone?” Lenna asks. “After it happened—why didn’t you say something?”
Sarah’s brow furrows. And then, in one swift movement, she pushes Lenna into the garage through the creaky open door.
“What are you talking about?” Sarah growls.
“Please,” Lenna whimpers, tears gathering behind her eyes. The small space is dark and hot and smells like gasoline. Several four-wheeler vehicles crowd the space. Jacob lets out a whimper, too.
“What did you just say?” Sarah repeats.
Lenna swallows hard. She can feel the tip of the knife’s bladetouching her skin. “I…I said wh-why didn’t you tell them what you saw?”
“Why would I do that?”
“It would have gotten you off the hook.” She looks away. “You could have told them what I did.”
Sarah shifts her weight. Finally, the knife falls a few inches to her side. She looks like someone has spun her around and she isn’t sure which way is up.
“What you…did?” Sarah says. She steps back. “Whatyoudid,” she repeats. She looks like she’s just regained consciousness. A strange smile spreads across her face.
And suddenly, another new idea glimmers inside Lenna. There’s something about the woman’s expression, herenergy,that opens another door.
The notion explodes, fanning out like ripples in water. Could it be that Sarah’s attack on her is not in self-defense?
Sarah is holding the knife because Lenna knows something dangerous abouther.
“Wait a minute,” Lenna whispers. “You…you didn’twantthem to know you were there. I wasn’t the one who pushed her…you did?”
“Shutup,” Sarah snaps. “You knew it was me. You told on me in the first place. And it’s why you’re here now. Are you, like, some kind of vigilante?”
“No.”Lenna shakes her head desperately. “I just…I just figured it out right now.” Her heart is thrumming. “Is this why you’re afraid? You think I’ve come here to…findyou?”
It all makes sense. When she woke up on the bench, her head had throbbed. She figured it was from her fight with Gillian, but maybe not.
