died.
I wasn’t alone in that car.
I stopped reading.
My mother had died in a car accident when I was nineteen.
The police had called it a tragic accident caused by wet roads.
But the letter continued.
The person sitting beside me was the only person who knew where Adrian was hiding.
And that person was the one who betrayed us.
At the bottom of the page was a name.
I read it once.
Then again.
My whole body went cold.
The person who had been with my mother
on the night of her death was—
Jonah’s mother.
I slowly lifted my eyes toward my husband.
He looked as though the ground had disappeared beneath him.
“No,” he whispered. “She told me your mother died alone.”
Margaret began to cry.
“Your mother-in-law has been carrying that secret for nineteen years.”
Before either of us could speak, Jonah’s phone rang.
It was his mother.
He answered on speaker.
“Jonah,” she said, her voice trembling. “Where are you?”
“Tell me what happened to Maria.”
Silence.
Then she whispered, “I can explain.”
