I slowly turned my head to the left, toward Jenna’s voice—and then I couldn’t help it. I let out a small scream.
Jenna was slumped in a corner. Her wrists were bound in front of her, deep red indentations in her skin visible around the ropes. Her ankles were also tied. She was pale, with chapped lips and dark circles under her eyes, and her hair and face looked dirty. How long had she been here?
“Jenna? What’s happening? Where are we?” My voice came out weak and raspy, but at least I was able to form words.
“Shh—Savannah, try and keep your voice down, or they’ll come back. I don’t want them to drug us again.”
“Drug us? Who? What are you talking about?” I whispered, my panic continuing to rise.
“Max and Madison—and Nora Clark.” Jenna’s eyes were wide, darting around the room.
“They did this? They kidnapped you? And me?” My head swiveled around the room, triggering another wave of pain. “Why does my head hurt so bad?” I spotted a few dots of red on my shoulder. “Is that blood?”
“They must have hit you to knock you out. They chloroformed me, but maybe they didn’t want to use it on you, since you’re … pregnant.” Her voice caught on that last word, and suddenly, I remembered what I’d been trying to recall about Jenna.
The lie about her pregnancy—her pregnancy with Max.And the new knowledge that she had been following me, spying on me, just like Jamie the nurse.
“Jenna … is it true? What the police told me? Were you lying about being pregnant?”
Jenna released a shuddering sigh. “Iwaspregnant … a long time ago. I was having Max’s baby. But I lost it.”
“Jenna, why didn’t you tell me? And why didn’t you tell me about Max? Were we ever really friends? Or were you just spying on me, like Madison?”
“No—I didn’t know what was really going on, in the beginning.” She took a deep breath, then spoke at a quick whisper. “Max and I were seeing each other last year. When I told him I was pregnant, he was so happy. I thought we were going to be a family.” She uttered a small, bitter laugh. “Then, when I lost the baby … he completely disappeared. Justghostedme. I had no idea why. Between losing my dad and losing the baby, I was hurting so much, and I … um, I started following him. I—I just wanted to see what he was doing, why he was ignoring me. Savannah—he was picking up women. At bars. Like,constantly. And then spending the night with them.”
A sick feeling started to grow in my stomach as I listened.
“He never told me about Madison. I thought I was the only woman in his life. Then I saw him with her one day, and they were both wearing wedding rings, and I figured out they were married. But even then, I didn’t know the whole story. I didn’t know if he was just cheating on her with all these women, if she knew, or what. Then he met you, and you look so much like her. And you got pregnant, just like I did.
“I was so shocked when he told you about Madison—and thenintroducedyou. At first I thought, maybe he finally decided to come clean with his wife about all the cheating. But eventually, I realized they had a plan, all along.”
“Plan? What plan?”
“Madison can’t have children of her own … some kind of condition. Madison’s family doesn’t want her to adopt … and I guess, somehow, they were rejected from doing a traditional surrogacy … so they decided to make you their surrogate.”
Suddenly, I heard voices—just outside the door.
“Pretend you’re asleep!” Jenna whispered, and I closed my eyes, trying to relax my body.
The door opened. I peeked between my eyelashes.
Madison and Nora.
It was all I could do to keep myself calm as my situation started to sink in.They’ve kidnapped me! And Jenna! What are they going to do with us?
Flashes of memories started coming back to me: I had been at my apartment, waiting for my mother to arrive … the intercom buzzing … then, blinding pain on the left side of my head, and blackness.
My pulse quickened and tears burned my eyes.Stop! You’ve got to stay calm. Don’t let them know you’re awake!
“I think we have everything we’ll need, right? I used the checklist in the back of the pregnancy book,” said Madison. There was a shuffling sound, like they were moving boxes around.
“Yes, honey, I think this is more than enough. It’s not like you won’t be able to go shopping, but this will get you through at least the first few weeks with the baby while you lie low,” said Nora.
“You told the nurse to arrive at eight, right?”
“Yes. Hopefully she doesn’t get lost. I told her what to say at the front gate and how to find our cabin.”
I fought to keep my breathing under control as I listened to them.Front gate? Cabin? Where are we?
