Chapter 3
I pushed the door open slowly.
The room was dark. The only light came from the streetlamp outside, casting long thin shadows across the walls.
Audrey was sitting on the edge of the bed.
She’d taken off the wedding dress. It was crumpled in a heap on the floor, like a dead thing. She was wearing one of Sienna’s old sweatshirts—the faded gray one with the college logo Sienna had worn every day senior year. Her hair was pulled back in a messy knot. Her face was puffy, streaked with tears.
She looked so small.
So alone.
I closed the door behind me and sat down beside her. I didn’t touch her. I didn’t say anything. I just sat there, letting her know I was there.
For a long time, we didn’t speak.
Somewhere down the street, a dog barked. A car passed. Inside the house, I could hear Richard and George talking in low voices in the kitchen.
Then Audrey took a shaky breath.
“I didn’t kill her.”
Her voice was so quiet I almost didn’t hear it.
I turned to look at her.
“What?”
She lifted her head. Her eyes were dry now, but they burned with a desperation I’d never seen before.
“I didn’t kill Sienna,” she said again. “I never drove that car. I never drank that night. I would never have let anything happen to her. She was my sister. My only real family.”
My throat went tight.
“The police said—”
“I know what the police said,” she interrupted. “I know what everyone said. That I was drunk. That I crashed. That I ran and left her there. But it’s not true. None of it is true.”
She leaned forward, her hands gripping the edge of the bed so tight her knuckles turned white.
“I need you to believe me, Mom. Please. I can’t take it if you don’t believe me too.”
I looked into her eyes.
I’d looked into those eyes a hundred times. I’d seen her happy, sad, angry, scared. I’d seen her when she was lying about sneaking Sienna out to a concert when we were supposed to be grounded.
This wasn’t that.
This was the truth. Raw, ugly, bleeding truth.
“I believe you,” I said.
The words were out before I even thought about them. And as soon as I said them, I knew they were real. I knew in my bones, in every part of me, that this girl had never hurt my daughter.
A sob tore out of her.
She collapsed against me, her body shaking so hard I could barely hold her. I wrapped my arms around her, rocking her back and forth, whispering soft nonsense into her hair, just like I used to do when Sienna had a nightmare.
“Tell me,” I said when she calmed a little. “Tell me what really happened that night.”
She pulled back, wiping her face with the sleeve of the sweatshirt.
“It was raining,” she said. Her voice was flat, like she was reading from a script she’d memorized a thousand times. “Sienna had just found out her boyfriend was cheating on her. She was destroyed. She called me, screaming, and told me to meet her at the old lookout. I got there and she was already drunk. She’d brought a bottle of vodka from your house. She said she wanted to drive. She said she didn’t care if she lived or died.”
Audrey paused, swallowing hard.
“I tried to stop her. I begged her to let me drive. I told her I’d take her home, I’d sneak her in, no one would ever know. But she wouldn’t listen. She got in the driver’s seat and locked the doors before I could stop her. I had to climb in the passenger side. She was going so fast. The roads were so slippery. I kept telling her to slow down. And then… the deer ran out in front of us.”
Her voice broke.
“She swerved. The car flipped. I hit my head and passed out. When I woke up, the car was on fire. Sienna was trapped. Her legs were stuck. I tried to pull her out. I tried so hard. But the flames were getting too big. She… she told me to go. She told me to run before the gas tank exploded. She said she loved me. She said to tell you she was sorry.”
Tears streamed down her face.
“I ran to the road to flag down help. By the time the police got there, the car was gone. Sienna was gone. And when they asked me who was driving… I couldn’t do it. I couldn’t tell them it was her. She was already gone. Everyone already thought she was perfect. I didn’t want her memory to be ruined. I didn’t want you to hate her. So I said it was me. And then I ran. Because I was scared. Scared you’d be angry. Scared I’d go to jail. Scared I’d have to live in a world where Sienna was gone and everyone blamed me for it.”
She looked up at me, her eyes pleading.
“I’m sorry. I’m so sorry I lied. I should have told you the truth. I should have been strong enough. But I was just a kid. And I missed her so bad it hurt to breathe.”
I sat there for a long time, not saying anything.
My whole world was spinning.
Five years.
Five years of hate. Five years of grief. Five years of thinking the girl I loved had killed my baby.
And all that time, Sienna had been hurting. Sienna had been driving. Sienna had made a mistake.
And Audrey…
Audrey had carried that secret alone for five years. She’d let everyone hate her. She’d let my son plan an entire wedding just to destroy her. All to protect Sienna’s memory.
All to protect us.
I pulled her back into my arms.
“I’m sorry,” I whispered into her hair. “I’m so sorry we let you carry this alone. I’m sorry Julian hurt you. I’m sorry I ever doubted you for even one second.”
May you like
I kissed the top of her head.
“You are my daughter,” I said. “Nothing will ever change that. Not Julian. Not the past. Nothing. I’m going to fix this. I promise you. I’m going to make this right.”
