She’s the state of North Carolina’s problem now.
In a way, it’s kind of funny.
A woman who barely clears five feet outsmarted an entire prison.
And escaped.
Never underestimate Fanny Allred.
I can’t keep thinking about my mom.
I need to knock on the door in front of me.
Things were just easier when Ingrid was mine. When she looked at me like I hung all the stars in the sky.
The way she looks at Wilder makes my stomach turn. The way she touches him when she doesn’t think I’m paying attention. The way her voice softens when she speaks to him.
It’s painful.
Like getting stabbed in the heart and bleeding out slowly for an entire year painful.
I thought she loved me.
Now, I keep wondering if she even likes me.
Or am I just their pity case?
Wilder used to be my mother’s. She’d do anything to help him as long as she was able to tell all the ladies at her church group what a good Christian she was.
If you have to say it out loud repeatedly, do people think that makes it real?
Or are we all that delusional?
I know I’m not a good person. I chose myself every single time.
Would Ingrid have believed me if I told her it was purely out of survival instinct?
Doesn’t matter now.
She’s wearing that stupid diamond band Wilder gave her. And I know her lightning bolt tattoo is about him. She won’t admit it, but I’ve studied Ingrid for the last five years. I know her thoughts even if she refuses to speak them out loud.
And when it comes to me?
She’s over me.
I don’t even think she feels bad about it.
She fell head over heels for Wilder. She’s a goner. If he breaks her heart, she’ll never recover.
She’ll fall apart and honestly? So would he.
We used to give him a hard time about dating a bunch of girls. Maybe I even thought I was better than he was because I was committed to Ingrid.
Jokes on me. She chose him in the end.
I know something traumatic went down with Wilder’s first girlfriend, Olivia-Sophia, but Ingrid seems to have healed whatever part of him was hurting from that.
Which makes it hurt even more.
