“For the last time, Serena. It wasn’t Dad!” Teddy roared. Then he stopped himself. “That babysitter?” he repeated, as gooseflesh rose on Jamie’s arms. “Is that why you left dinner early that night? To attack Marissa?”
“These women . . . I know you don’t see it, but these women, these awful, evil women, are out to get you . . . that Bette person wouldn’t leave you alone. I had to protect you. I needed to stop them. . . .” She swept the knife Jamie’s way. “You won’t succeed. All of you who are trying to break us up.”
“I’m not trying to break you up,” Jamie said. What time was it? If Cooper texted, could she get to her phone? It was inside her purse, and the purse was in the kitchen.
“Liar,” Serena whispered. “You’re all such liars.”
“Serena, I—” Teddy began just as she leaped toward Jamie.
Jamie stumbled backward, but Serena was on her. They fell into the wall, and Teddy jumped forward. But Jamie was falling, falling, and Serena slammed the knife downward into Jamie’s neck and shoulder. A sharp sting. Jamie slipped to the ground. As Serena pulled back the knife again, Jamie reached up and grabbed her wrist with both hands.
“Serena!” Teddy was behind his sister, grappling with her. She elbowed him in the ear and he fell backward.
Then Jamie heard the back door slam against the wall and Cooper was there, pulling Serena back by her hair. She slashed backward at him, but he caught the wrist Jamie had lost a grip on and slammed Serena’s hand into the wall until the bloody knife slipped from her grasp and fell to the carpet.
“Let me go! Let me go!” Serena screamed.
“Serena,” Teddy said brokenly.
Her gaze found him and the bloody mess of his left hand. Her face slackened in horror. “Dad . . .” she whimpered, and then her eyes rolled back and Cooper caught her in his arms before she fell to the ground.
Epilogue
Jamie looked critically at the ugly purple slash alongside her neck and shoulder in the bathroom mirror, aware of how lucky she was that the knife had hit her collarbone, saving her from more serious injury.
“Mom?” Harley’s voice sounded from outside.
Jamie, who’d just stepped out of a sponge bath, pulled her robe back over her wound and opened the door.
Harley was in the hall and there was a thumping sound coming from Mom’s bedroom. It was Emma, determined to move things around so Jamie would move into the room for good.
“Is she moving the vanity?” Jamie asked. “I made the mistake of saying I’d never use it. It’s okay, Emma!” she called out.
“Mom,” Harley said again. She’d pulled her hair back into a ponytail and was in jeans, sneakers, and a thin blue hoodie. “It’s the last football game. I don’t want to miss it.”
Greer and Tyler had been allowed to play. Some kind of arrangement had been made between the families involved in the thefts and vandalism and Tyler, though not officially charged with a crime, was facing some kind of ongoing sanctions at school. Katie Timbolt was already attending her new school and Cathy had put her house up for sale. She had not used Vicky as her real estate agent.
“I’ll get you over to Marissa’s in time.”
“I’ll drive. She’s at Mr. Haynes’s.”
“I know.”
In the intervening weeks since Jamie had been injured, Harley had gotten her permit and was desperate for Jamie to let her drive anywhere and everywhere. Marissa was staying with Cooper more, because Laura had taken a job as a receptionist at one of the medical offices around Glen Gen, the job she’d held before marrying Cooper, while she worked out not living with David Musgrave any longer. Since irregularities with the law firm’s books had been found out, she’d lost his financial support, and not only had the deal to buy in Staffordshire Estates fallen through, David had been unable to help with any household expenses. Laura was leaning on Marissa’s father for child support, which he’d never been either willing or able to make. Cooper was helping her out through this rough time, and in return, she’d stopped fighting him for Marissa, at least temporarily.
Jamie finished getting dressed and climbed into the Camry with Harley at the wheel. Though her daughter was a conscientious driver, Jamie was still white-knuckling it everywhere they went. Through the rearview mirror she saw a black SUV cruise by on the road behind them, a near clone to the one Serena had used as she’d followed various women she considered threats around River Glen. An icy frisson slid down her spine.
“Is Emma sure she wants to go?” Harley asked as she tentatively backed out of the drive.
“She says she is.”
“Yeah, but is she?”
Jamie had put Emma’s name on the list for a one-bedroom apartment in Ridge Pointe. Though they were still working out the details of how much money David, and Elgin before him, who’d been the originator of playing fast and loose with clients’ investment money, pooling it in an account that violated all kinds of legal rules, it appeared that Emma had been right all along: Mom had set aside funds for her.
“It’s going to be a while until we get it all worked out,” Jamie said.
Teddy Ryerson had put his parents’ home up for sale. After everything that had happened, he didn’t want the memories. He’d talked to Nadine and was planning a move up to Bellevue, so Anika and Oliver would be near their grandmother. Teddy was planning to bring his clients with him to a national investment firm that had offices in the area. In the meantime, he was still working to extricate the money Mom had set aside for Emma.
“Are you going to get the car going this weekend?” Harley asked as she climbed out of the Camry at Cooper’s house. She was angling for Mom’s Outback.
“Yes, yes. I said I
