Chapter 5

In the haze of pain, a memory surfaced. Brighton and I, two years ago, sitting on this very property before it fell into ruin. It was his family's old summer home, and he had plans to tear it down and build our dream house.

"Right here," he had said, kissing my temple, "will be the nursery. With a big window so our baby can see the stars."

He had been so tender then, so full of promises. He swore he would protect me from the world, that he and I were a team, that Haylee' s occasional dramatics were just something we had to manage together.

"You' re my anchor, Joslyn," he'd whispered. "You make everything make sense."

What a lie. Or maybe, he had believed it then. Maybe something in him had broken along the way, twisted by Haylee' s constant, insidious poison. He wasn't strong enough to resist her. He chose the easier path: believing her lies over my love.

The man who had promised me stars was now the man encouraging his friends to stone me in the dark.

The pain in my head was immense, but a strange clarity cut through it. I had to survive. For Lily. For myself.

My hand, slick with my own blood, found the torn lobe of my ear. The earring was gone, but the signal had been sent.

"One hour," I whispered to myself, a prayer to a man I hadn't seen in a decade. "Just hold on."

I pressed my palm to the ground, trying to push myself up again.

Brighton must have seen the movement, seen my lips move.

"What was that?" he demanded, stepping closer. "Still whispering to your secret lover?"

The paranoia Haylee had planted was now a raging infection.

"Who is he, Joslyn?" he spat. "Who is the man you were planning to run away with?"

My silence was my only weapon. It drove him insane.

His friends, sensing the shift in his obsession, started chiming in.

"Yeah, Brighton, she was definitely talking to someone on that earring," Chad said, eager to stoke the flames.

"A helicopter?" Tiffany laughed. "Only a really rich guy could do that. Richer than you, Brighton?"