Total pages in book: 128
Estimated words: 120230 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 601(@200wpm)___ 481(@250wpm)___ 401(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 120230 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 601(@200wpm)___ 481(@250wpm)___ 401(@300wpm)
I was about to say I had no idea what she was talking about when I remembered seeing a promo on a billboard in the city. “Did the posters have one woman on them, half in light, half in shadow, with a mirror image behind her?” The poster had disturbed me for reasons unintended—I’d thought it was my eyes making me see double.
“Yes, that’s the one. I was saying how I didn’t buy the cold-blooded nature of the murder when the writers of the show had spent the entire season building up the bond between the twins.” Grace’s words picked up speed. “If we were to believe that, then we had to believe that by killing her twin, the survivor was killing herself—and yet we see her walk off into the sunset to live the perfect life.”
“Go on.”
“There’s nothing else—that’s when Darcie began screaming.”
I caught Grace’s bewildered headshake in the rearview mirror, the movement clear enough that I could make it out even in the gloom inside the vehicle. The instrument lights barely penetrated the thick dark of it, but I couldn’t risk driving with the interior light on—my vision wouldn’t be able to cope with the different light levels inside and out.
“She asked me if I was accusing her of killing her sister, and how dare I . . . and honestly, I don’t remember the rest too well. I know we were in the kitchen for the start of it. That’s when she must’ve grabbed the knife and I must’ve panicked and taken one, too.”
Grace’s voice trembled. “I was so scared, Luna. I screamed at her to stop after she chased me into the living room, but she wouldn’t, and then she tried to hurt Vansi and I had to fight—I didn’t mean to stab her that hard!”
She was sobbing by the end, her breathing jagged and broken.
A sound from the front passenger seat, a stir.
48
Idared a glance and saw that Darcie’s eyes were fluttering. “Darcie?” I said sharply, even as I returned my attention to the windscreen and the blurry gold of my headlights in the rain.
Darcie’s answer was a groan.
“Don’t let her convince you it was me,” Grace begged, her voice wet. “I know she’s your friend, but I didn’t do anything except defend myself. She’s probably the reason this woman is unconscious. Darcie probably gave her something, too.”
Darcie’s voice was a rasp low enough that it would’ve been inaudible if I hadn’t brought the Land Cruiser to a halt when I sensed her trying to straighten up from her slumped-over position. “Sh . . . she . . . ’s lying.”
“I’m not!” Grace kicked the back of Darcie’s seat. “You crazy bitch!”
“Grace! Stop it!”
A sob. “Sorry, I’m sorry. I just can’t stand her anymore. She hurt Aaron, too, didn’t she? That’s why he didn’t come back with you.”
“He’s fine. Just unconscious.” I didn’t add any information about Ash.
Then Darcie said, “Ash?” in a voice that was a tremor.
“He’s fine, too,” I replied, because the last thing I needed was for her to dissolve into hysteria, feigned or real. “Just fell through a rotten board and hit his head. I left him and Aaron together in a warm place.”
Darcie’s cough was painful, a scraping kind of thing. “Grace stabbed me.” The words were firmer this time, even though her face was white from lack of blood, her lips almost bluish. “She’s crazy.”
“I don’t even know you!” Grace yelled. “Any of you! You’re Aaron’s friends!”
“Luna . . .” Another rasping breath. “She’s right. We don’t know her. We know nothing about her.”
A chill spread through me at that simple statement that echoed my own earlier thought. Grace might not know us, but we also didn’t know her. But there was a much, much bigger elephant in the vehicle. “Darcie,” I said, “why is Bea in the back passenger seat?”
Darcie seemed to jerk. “I th-thought I imagined . . .” Rustling, as if she was struggling to look into the back. “Scam, it’s a scam,” she rasped at last. “Bea’s dead. They sent me an official death certificate. My Triss is dead, Luna.”
She sounded so shaken, her tears so savage that I found myself wanting to believe her. But that woman was Bea. Yet if Darcie hadn’t known of her continued existence . . . then what? Where had Bea been all this time? Had she somehow fooled Darcie into believing her dead, then just left us for so many years?
My heart threatened to implode from the pain, but I had to face it. If Bea had been alive the past nine years, then she’d chosen not to contact me.
“G-Grace is insane. Came after me with a cleaver after I started to worry why Vansi was so deeply asleep. Said she’d tell me why while she was gutting me.”