The Girl Who Survived(128)

Kara felt Tate squeeze her hand and far away, over the rush of the winter wind, she heard the welcome sound of distant sirens. “So you . . . you were the one who called me, who texted me?”

“Yes.” Marlie nodded and finally met the questions in her sister’s eyes.

“But you said, ‘She’s alive.’ ”

“I know. She is alive. Marlie is alive.”

“But that’s you,” Kara pointed out.

“Oh . . . yeah. Right.” She sighed. “I’ve been going by a different name for twenty years. Hailey. Hailey Brown. Posing as Walter’s niece if anyone ever asked. No one did much. I didn’t see many people. I wasn’t allowed and truthfully”—again she motioned to her disfigured face while the sirens shrieked ever louder—“I didn’t want to. Until I knew that Jonas was being released. That was what set Dad off. He went out of his mind! Beside himself. So agitated, he left me at the house in Seaside. Locked me up for the first time in years. Until Jonas was set free, Dad had believed I wouldn’t leave, wouldn’t expose him.” She sniffed and her jaw slid to one side as she glanced at the man who had sired her, abducted her, held her prisoner and made her a part of his sick, twisted life. “Unfortunately,” she went on, “he was right. For the most part. However, I had my own secrets. In the last couple of years, I found his keys, made a copy and had stashed away one of his burner phones and siphoned off some of the household cash. So, when the time came if he ever locked me away again, I’d be ready. And I was. When he flipped out over Jonas. I couldn’t just sit there. And . . . and I didn’t have the nerve to call the police, or admit to who I was so that I would be tracked down and have to deal with the cops, so I took the chicken-shit way out, remained Hailey and tried to warn you.” She shrugged and snorted, her face a mask of guilt and embarrassment. “That didn’t work so well.”

“But you could have left anytime you wanted?”

“In the last few years? Yeah.” She nodded, then her features grew hard, her scar more pronounced. “But where would I go? My family other than Dad was gone, and I couldn’t risk contacting Chad or you without telling the police and turning in my own father. I know it sounds lame,” she admitted, a tear tracking down her cheek, “but I was laid up for a while when I was healing and Dad took care of me.”

“He locked you away!”

“He . . . he was all I had,” she said, her voice cracking.

Kara let go of Tate’s hand. Grabbed her sister’s shoulder. “Damn it, Marlie. You could have contacted me!”

She sniffed. “Don’t swear,” she said, shaking her head, fighting against a wash of tears that spilled from her eyes.

“But—”

“You were a child, Kara!” Marlie snapped. “I couldn’t.” With trembling fingers, she brushed the tears and snowflakes from her face. “In my mind Marlie Robinson is dead.” She gave a sad little laugh and pushed Kara’s hand from her shoulder. Then added coldly, “And so is Hailey Brown.”

“But you’ll always be Marlie to me,” Kara argued.

“Good. Remember me the way I was.”

There was something in her voice, a warning. With dawning horror, Kara asked, “What’s that supposed to mean?”

“I can’t go back,” Marlie whispered, scooting away from Kara. “I can’t. I just can’t. I’m not Marlie anymore. She died long ago and I’m not Hailey.”

“Don’t!” Tate warned, as if he, too, suddenly understood.

“Marlie, please—”

But it was too late.

Marlie extracted her handgun from her pocket and before she said a word, placed it to her temple.

“No!” Kara struggled forward.

Tate lunged.

Blam!

The gun went off, blasting loudly, echoing through the frigid forest.

Marlie collapsed, the bullet exploding through her skull.

Kara screamed. Threw herself forward.

Tate’s arms surrounded her, holding her close against the snowpacked and bloodstained ground. “Shhhh. It’ll be all right,” he said, cradling her head against the crook of his neck, his fingers splayed in her hair as he forced her face away from the gore and she shook; from the inside out, she trembled.

“It’ll be okay. Shhh. Shhh. Shhh,” he intoned.

But he was lying. She knew that now, staring at her sister’s motionless body. There was no chance Marlie had survived. None.

He rocked her slowly, holding her tight as lights flashed, people shouted, the sirens shrieked.

Help had finally come.

Far too late.

Kara was cold inside, a part of her—hope, she supposed—now dead, because tonight in this snowstorm, she’d finally found her sister, only to lose her again.

And this time it was forever.





CHAPTER 36


Kara popped four Altoids, gathered her courage and stepped into Tate’s hospital room. The past few days had been a nightmare that she’d gone through numb and zombie-like. Her nightmares had returned and this time she was with Marlie, in the snowy forest, reliving those last shattering moments of her sister’s life.

Now, she had to work through it. Find an inner strength. Even pretend if she had to. She plastered a smile onto her face and hoped it didn’t seem as fake as it felt, that it wasn’t a garish grin forced onto a haunted face.