Only then did Evan notice that Tessa was gone.
He wiped his face, staggered to his feet, and spoke to me.
“Don’t worry, Lily. I’ll find the person who killed you. I promise.”
I hovered above him, watching him stumble out the door.
The person who killed me.
But who could really say which of them was responsible for my death?
Evan found Tessa at Seabrook Rail Station.
She was waiting in line at the ticket counter, preparing to buy a ticket back to her hometown and hide there.
She saw Evan approaching and turned to run.
She wasn’t fast enough.
He grabbed her by the hair and dragged her out of the crowd.
Evan threw Tessa to the floor in front of me.
The moment Graham saw her, he strode over and raised his hand.
He slapped her twice, once on each cheek, hard enough to draw blood at the corner of her mouth.
“You bitch!”
His voice was nearly gone.
“You said Lily would get better! You said this was the last time! You said you were one hundred percent sure!”
Maya rushed at Tessa and grabbed her hair, pulling viciously.
“Give Lily back to me!”
She screamed through her tears.
“You said if we all acted like we didn’t care about her, you’d be able to cure her!”
“Then why did this happen? Give Lily back!”
Tessa shrieked under their blows and curled into a ball.
She covered her head with both hands, but she still refused to back down.
“How was I supposed to know she was that sick?”
“You’re the people closest to her! You know her better than anybody, and none of you saw how bad she was. Why should all the blame fall on me?”
She looked up, blood at the corner of her mouth.
“For all I know, you pushed her on purpose so she’d die and you could extort money from me!”
Evan finally lost control.
He kicked her in the ribs, sending her sprawling several feet across the floor.
Tessa curled up, groaning in pain, unable to say another word.
But no matter how badly they hurt her, none of it could bring me back.
In the end, Evan turned Tessa over to the police.
She was arrested on suspicion of involuntary manslaughter.
And what difference did it make?
Tessa would go to prison, but one day she would get out.
Three years. Five years. Seven years.
She would have a criminal record, but she’d still be alive.
She could start over after her release. Move to another city and pretend her past had never happened.
Maybe one night she’d remember a woman named Lillian Hayes, the woman she’d driven to her death.
Then she’d roll over and go back to sleep.
But I was no longer in this world.