“I wanted to find you again. I wanted to be part of a family. If I could give Ashley back to you, it would be what you wanted. But then I found out what you really did. That you and Leona murdered her. She didn’t go missing. She hasn’t been lost for five years. She’s been dead. Leona told me. She thought I had come back from the dead to torture her for what she did. And now that’s exactly what I’m going to do.”
She takes a step toward her mother, but I stop her. “Lyla, no. Not for them.”
“No!” Misty says, crumbling in a heap of sobs. “Leona didn’t do anything. It was me. I did it. The only one to blame is me.”
“Stop,” Leona’s voice comes from below us. “Mom, stop. You can’t take the blame for this. You’ve covered for me for long enough. It was me.”
I look down and see Leona grimacing as she tries to pull herself up to sit with her back against the metal container. She looks up at us. “I didn’t mean to. Ashley was always the favorite. She was always the one who did everything right and was popular and beautiful. She got away with everything.
“I got so tired of it. I was always living in her shadow. No matter what happened, she wasn’t blamed for it and everything went her way. That night, I was supposed to go out with Sean, but he called me at the last minute and said he couldn’t go. I still wanted to go out and do something, but Mom said I had to stay home and help her because Ashley was out.
“Later, Sean came over and apologized for not seeing me. He gushed all over me and told me how special I was, how much he loved me. Then he told me what happened with Ashley. That he had been with her and the other girls, and she was drunk out of her mind. He wanted me to go pick her up and bring her home so he wouldn’t get in any trouble.
“Of course, I did it. I was so mad at him and so hurt, but I was so wrapped up in him. I guess I still am. As soon as I saw her, I was so angry, I couldn’t even see straight. I brought her out here to sober up. But she started rubbing in my face that she was hanging out with my boyfriend and his actual girlfriend while I was home. She kept saying she was only thirteen and was already getting more attention than I ever had.
“I snapped. I picked up a piece of metal. I really just wanted to scare her, but it cut her. Right across the side. She stumbled and fell over the edge into this water reservoir. I tried to save her. But I couldn’t. I called Mom and told her Ashley went missing.”
“Leona,” gasps Misty. “You?”
She seems shocked to have the truth finally come out, but at the same time it seems she’s known somehow all along, just kept it buried deep under the surface.
“I’m sorry, Mom.” Leona is crying now, and so is Misty, and even Lyla has tears shimmering in her eyes.
“I thought,” Misty says, “I thought that if—if I gave Ashley the love I should have given Lyla all those years that somehow, some way, she would feel it. I know you missed out on it, Leona. I’m sorry. I’m so sorry, for both of you.”
Neither Lyla nor Leona answers.
Fifty-Five
“Mary is going to be fine,” I tell the group gathered around me. “Misty knew her mother was going to tell me about the twin, so she had to do something to keep her quiet. Her medical alert bracelet said that she was allergic to quinine. It’s easy to access, undetectable, and results in organ breakdown and heart attacks in those who are allergic to it,” I say. “She just didn’t expect her mother to survive.”
“What about the man she sold Lyla to?” Bellamy asks.
“His name was Frederick Smith. Nowhere near a Wolf, I have to admit. They found his body behind the house he shared with Jessica. Lyla told me when Misty started making statements on the news about Ashley’s disappearance, he wanted to capitalize on it. He wanted to extort money from her by using Lyla as a pawn. After an entire lifetime of being used and manipulated, she wasn’t going to take it anymore.
“She decided she was going to benefit from it herself. Thinking about getting out and finding her family was enough to give her the strength to fight back. Jessica was helping her get ready for her appointment that day. She smashed her head in the mirror, which knocked her out. It wasn’t enough to kill her, but she wasn’t the one Lyla was particularly focused on. Jessica had always been kinder to her. Lyla was after Frederick.
“He was stabbed thirteen times. That wasn’t a coincidence. Apparently, Jessica regained consciousness and realized what had happened. Shecleaned up all the evidence of Lyla and took Frederick’s body. The knife Lyla used came from the kitchen. They found it under the porch. That was why the blood didn’t extend far. She dropped it through one of the rotten boards.”
“I can’t believe she lived through that,” Sam mutters. “Poor girl.”
“She has a long road ahead of her,” I say. “But at least now there’s something at the end of it, and all the people who failed her are paying for it.” I look at Bellamy, with Bebe cradled in her arms. “Twice now mothers were involved. I don’t understand.”
She looks down at the baby. “I can’t explain
