“I…I don’t remember,” Olive said.
“Think, dammit!”
And as Olive tried to squirm out of her aunt’s grasp, she did think.
She thought of how her mother had pulled away from Riley in the last days before she left, had refused to go out with her and how they’d fought.
She thought of her mother’s diary, of the final entry, how the writing was messier, more hurried. Was it possible that her mother hadn’t written it? That someone else had?
She thought of looking through her mother’s closet and how the only pair of shoes missing was the beaded ivory slippers. Of how that meant she’d been wearing them when she left the house for the final time.
“How did you get my mother’s shoes?” Olive asked.
Riley looked at her a second, her face tense. Then she smiled, but it was a sickeningI’m about to tell you a big lie and you’d better believe itsort of smile. “She gave them to me.”
Olive kicked at her aunt, dug her fingernails into Riley’s arms.
“Help!” she screamed, thinking if she screamed loud enough, Helen and Nate would hear, would come running.
Riley pulled Olive closer, spinning her, wrapping one arm around her neck, holding her other hand over her mouth.
“Shh, Ollie. Calm down. You’re okay. Everything’s going to be okay.”
But as she spoke, her arm tightened around Olive’s neck.
“Please, Aunt Riley.” Olive wheezed out the words with what little air could get through.
“Shh, my special, special girl,” Riley cooed, pulling her arm even tighter.
CHAPTER 50
Helen
SEPTEMBER 13, 2015
Hattie Breckenridge was choking Olive.
Not the faint ghost of Hattie, but an actual, physical Hattie.
They were standing not twelve feet away from Helen, by the wrecked foundation of Hattie’s house, and Hattie was behind Olive, holding her, the crook of her elbow against Olive’s throat.
The moon cast a bright light, fully illuminating the scene in the bog.
They’d been following the doe, jogging along behind it through the woods. It would get far ahead of them, nearly out of sight, then stop and wait for them to catch up before moving on. When Olive’s scream pierced the silence, the deer broke into a run, Helen and Nate right behind her. She’d heard Nate stumble, fall to the ground with a “Shit!,” but hadn’t turned back. Helen followed the deer to the bog, and as she stood at the tree line, she saw Olive and Hattie about four yards away. A man was crumpled on the ground beside them.
Helen sprinted up behind the figure in the white dress with the long dark hair. She got to her, grabbed her hair, screamed, “Let her go!”
But the dark hair came off in her hands.
A wig.
And under it, a bare neck with a circular snake tattoo.
“Riley! What the hell are you doing?”
Helen grabbed Riley’s shoulders, pulling her back. Olive dropped to the ground, gasping. Olive looked up and Helen saw she was wearing the necklace: Hattie’s necklace, the circle, triangle, and square glinting in the moonlight.
“You!” Riley screamed at Helen. “Why couldn’t you have just gone away? Left before it was too late?”
