(eng) Kristi Cook - Winterhaven 03 by Eternal

Author:Eternal [Eternal]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Published: 0101-01-01T00:00:00+00:00

20 ~ Dead Wrong

I’m not sure how I made it through Kate’s funeral without losing my mind—how any of us did, really. The last week of break had been nothing short of a nightmare. Only, there’d been no waking from this one, no sigh of relief when the alarm sounded and you found yourself tucked safely in bed.

My sorrow was unrelenting. I’d screwed up; I’d somehow sent Kate out to suffer what should have been Jack’s fate. How had I missed the clues? True, I hadn’t expected to find my friends in Atlanta during break. I had expected this vision to take place closer to home. The semiformal attire had made me think prom, maybe. The filled-out, fully leaved trees suggested later in the season, at least in New York. I’d thought there was still time to figure it out.

I’d been wrong. Dead wrong. And Kate had paid the price.

Thanks to Aidan’s mind tricks, the Atlanta police, along with Kate’s family, were convinced that some random, depraved murderer had killed her in a particularly gruesome manner. A botched robbery, they theorized. After all, rich kids wandering out in the woods around a posh country club would be easy targets. That explanation was good enough for them.

But those of us who knew the truth, well . . . we’d have to live with it for the rest of our lives.

School had offered us an extra week’s time off, but we’d all been anxious to return, to be together again. The first day back, they’d called us all to the school’s counselor’s office, even Matthew. I know they were trying their best, but talking about it didn’t help. Not for me and certainly not for Jack.

Jack, who had headed back inside the club after receiving a frantic text from Kate that night. Only he hadn’t bothered to text her back to tell her he was coming, and so she’d gone out looking for him.

And I would never, ever forgive myself for that.

My cell, set to vibrate, buzzed beside me. Patsy. With a sigh, I connected the call.

“Hey, Mom.” I lay back on my bed, staring up at the ceiling.

“Hey,” Patsy said. “So, how are you doing?”

“Fine,” I lied. “I mean, I’m hanging in there.”

I heard her sigh. “I really wish you’d taken the school up on their offer and stayed home a few more days. It’s just too soon after something like that.”

“Well, I talked to the school counselor yesterday.” I figured that would satisfy her.

“Oh, that’s good. Okay.” I could hear the relief in her voice. “I . . . um . . . I kind of need to talk to you about something important, but I know it’s not really a good time.”

Uh-oh. What now? “It’s fine,” I said. “What’s going on?”

“Well, this is kind of big. It’s quite a shock, even for me.”

“Okay. Go on,” I prodded.

“Paul’s asked me to marry him,” she blurted out. “And I said yes.”

“Wow. That’s . . . great,” I said lamely. “Congratulations.”

“There’s more,” she warned, and I braced for it.

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