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“But I have no idea if she was being genuine. Westilldon’t know.”
Sarah’s gaze is on something down the rocks. Lenna strains to hear anything over the wind. Then, Sarah stands straighter. Despite the heat, the color drains from her face.
“Fuck,” she says.
“Who is it?”
She glances at Lenna again. Her eyes have turned dark andhaunted. “This always lurked at the back of my mind, but…but I never thought it was a real possibility.”
“What?”
Sarah runs a trembling hand through her hair. “It’s really never occurred to you that she might still be alive?”
“Who?”
“You know.Gillian.”
A ringing sound begins in Lenna’s ears. “Wh-what?”
“They never actually found her body,” Sarah whispers. “Only some of her personal effects. But it was never actually official, and—”
“What thefuckare you talking about?” Lenna shrieks.
Sarah claps a hand over Lenna’s mouth. “You have to keep it down.”
Lenna peers around Sarah to look into the barren ravine. If it’s Gillian, then she wants to see for herself. But all she sees are rocks. Cacti. Swirls of stirred-up sand. Twisted trees half bent over from the storm. Branches snapped off.
She looks at Sarah. “What did you see?”
“A woman.” Sarah’s voice is shaking. “Someone with her hair.”
“Why didn’t you tell me sooner you didn’t think Gillian was dead?”
Sarah looks distraught. “Because I didn’t want tobelieveit. But think about it. We both wronged her. No matter how things ended up that day, she couldn’t have returned to a normal life.”
Lenna swallows a lump in her throat. She thinks of Gillian charging for her on that cliff. Gillian somehow pretending she was Lenna and texting Rhiannon. Gillian faking that she worked at that magazine and who knows where else.
“Rhiannon, too,” Lenna whispers. “Gillian hated her. She was jealous of me being friends with her.”
“She holds grudges, Lenna. She wrote them down on that Instagram page.”
Lenna is sobbing now. “No.Gillian fell into a canyon. Her family never even showed up when she went missing. She had no support.”
“Are we sure she fell? Do you know for certain?” Sarah looks pained. “Someoneis looking for us, and someone did something to Rhiannon. It all connects.”
Lenna’s mind reels. She needs to sit down, but there’s nowhere to sit. Images dance back into her brain. She hates how tidy this all is.
Butfake her death?Couldshe have? Maybe Gillian tumbled over the canyon but fully knew she’d get a foothold and be okay. Maybe she threw her things deeper into the canyon to make it look like she died. A chill comes over Lenna. MaybeGillianwas the one who’d made that anonymous tip about Sarah that got her in trouble. Only, why hadn’t she tipped them off about Lenna, too? And why had she brought them all here? To get them together to punish them at once? All three women…and their children?
Sarah stares at Jacob on Lenna’s chest, maybe thinking the same things. “We have to hide.” She starts back down the mountain. “This way.”
“The phone service! 911!” Every step they take down the mountain means less of a cell signal.
But Sarah is already heading down the winding path, the dregs of the windstorm sweeping against her ankles. Lenna doesn’t know what else to do but follow. The dog is quickly at her heels, clearly not wanting to be left alone. Barbed plants claw at her ankles. Jacob stares at her with drowsy eyes; his lips are cracked, possibly from dehydration. Lenna needs to get her baby out of the desert. It could be life-threatening.
Desert rocks jut up haphazardly; one wrong step, and Lenna will careen into a sharp cactus. She follows Sarah, Jacob bouncing, as she heads to the backside of the mountain. There, they find anoutcropping of rock that makes a natural awning, almost a little cave. Sarah stops under it to catch her breath. Jacob is wailing again, and though Lenna tries to silence him—his voice echoes worryingly—he is so worked up, probably overtired, certainly done with this journey, that he can’t be calmed.Please,Lenna thinks as she slicks back his hair, wanting to cry, too.Please, just hang on a little longer.
From their spot, they have a good view of the land. Sarah points to the right. “If she’s still there, at least now we’ll see her.” She pulls out her phone. “I’ll call someone at the house. I bet the Wi-Fi signal is back.”
