Kara jumped. No one called her that anymore. She was Kerry these days. Kara Snow—murderess—died in Ohio. Kerry Martin—mother and wife—lived in Seattle.
Her arms clenched around her daughter so tightly that Melody let out a squawk of surprise.
“Shhh.” Kara pressed her lips against the baby’s ear, arms wrapped around her. “It’s okay. It’s okay,” she whispered, the words as much for own comfort as for her daughter’s.
“Hello, Ingrid.” Kara didn’t look up. Just kept clutching Melody as her childhood friend sat beside her.
“That’s some welcome,” Ingrid said. “Five years, and I don’t even get a hug?”
Kara looked over at her, and all the rage of those years welled up. Six years of telling herself Eddie must have attacked Ingrid. Five years of refusing to consider the possibility her friend had cut a deal implicating Kara in his murder. Four years in that horrible place, with those horrible girls. Three years since she’d gotten out to discover her mother wanted nothing to do with her. Two years since she’d fled to Seattle with Gavin to become someone else. All because of Ingrid.
“How did you find me?” Kara asked.
“Gavin Martin.”
Kara cringed. She’d met Gavin in an outreach program after her release. He’d recently been released himself, from a minimum-security prison where he’d served time after his own so-called friend talked him into a convenience store holdup. That kind of record wouldn’t stop him from getting a construction job, so he’d made no attempt to hide his identity as they’d moved west. Anyone who knew she’d been dating Gavin could just ask his family where they’d gone.
“I have a new life now,” Kara said.
“So I see. What a cutie. Can I hold her?”
Kara’s arms tightened again around Melody. She paused, and as hard as she tried to hold onto her anger, when she heard Ingrid’s voice and looked over and saw her old friend there, she felt…guilty. Some-damned-howshefelt guilty.
“She isn’t used to strangers,” Kara said.
“Shy, like her momma.” Ingrid looked at Kara and her pretty face softened. “I’m sorry, Kare-Bear. I know I have a lot to be sorry for, and I really am. I’ve changed, and I wanted to tell you that.”
“You came all the way to Seattle to tell me that?”
Ingrid’s smile sparked, as bright as ever. “Sure. You’re my best friend. I’d go anywhere for you. Now, how about we get this little girl’s momma a nice hot coffee. It’s freezing out here.”
And so it began. Kara didn’t just roll over and play best friend again. But… Yes, ultimately she let Ingrid back into her life. She didn’t have a choice.
“I know who you really are,” Ingrid had told her, a week later, when Ingrid announced she had a new job in Seattle and wasn’t leaving. “That’s just our little secret, though, right?”
“If you mean Gavin, he already knows?—”
“Of course he does. But I’m sure you don’t go around telling people here that you spent three years in jail for murder.”
“No.” Kara looked her in the eye. “And if you’re threatening to tell?—”
Ingrid hugged her. “Of course not. I mean, they don’t know so they can’t understand you the way I do. You need me, Kara. That’s all.”
That was not all, and Kara knew it.
Karahad been lying on the basement floor for what felt like hours. Every now and then Ingrid would call her name. When Kara ignored her, she started to moan about the pain, that she thought their captor had broken her arm, that she felt feverish. When Kara still didn’t answer, she started to cry, soft sobsat first, then rising, begging forgiveness from God and Eddie’s brother and every person she’d ever wronged.
“I didn’t mean to hurt anyone,” she sobbed.
“Even me?” Kara said.
Silence, then, “Kara?”
Kara rose to sit, chain scraping the floor, metal digging in where she’d yanked against it, trying to escape the beating, knowing it would do no good. The price she’d had to pay, apparently. There was always a price. And Kara was always paying it.
“You’re asking everyone to forgive you, but those people aren’t here. Even Eddie’s brother can’t hear you down here. The only one listening is the person you owe the biggest apology to. But I don’t hear you giving it.”
“If you mean Eddie?—”
