Page 48 of Whispers of the Lake

“Okay—fine. Fine. I’ll go. But—just stay on the phone, okay?” I heard keys jingling in the background and then a door slamming.

“Rose?” she called.

“I’m still here.”

“ ’Kay.”

Her car door closed. I could tell she was driving by the steady whooshing noise in the background.

“Make sure you’re driving the speed limit, Zo.”

“I am, I am.” She released a heavy breath. “Was I right? Was she kidnapped?”

I hesitated before answering. “I’m not sure.”

“Oh Godfrey,” she whined.

“But I don’t think she’s hurt,” I added. A lie, of course. “So don’t work yourself up.”

“Did you guys get into an argument or something?” she asked. “I mean, before all of this? Maybe that’s why all of this is happening. She’s been so sad because you guys aren’t as close anymore.”

I swallowed, swinging my gaze to the dark curtains. “Eve and I aren’t on good terms anymore for good reason, Zoey. I haven’t talked to her in in about three months, so I don’t think that’s why she’s missing.”

“I don’t get why you’re avoiding her,” she said.

“Because she . . . she did something unforgiveable.”

“What could she have possibly done for you not to speak to her for that long?”

I paused before saying, “She slept with Cole.”

The line went quiet. The seconds ticked by, one after another, until Zoey spoke up again.

“She wouldn’t do that,” she muttered, finally.

“Well, I’m telling you she did. I literally saw them with my own eyes.”

“What the fuck,” Zoey breathed. “WHAT THE FUCK!” she screamed this time. “Why would she do that?”

I refrained from crying and instead squeezed my eyes shut. “I don’t know.”

“I don’t get it,” she whispered. “I—I really don’t get it. That’s why she was acting so weird. She kept saying something about how she needed to forgive people for their mistakes because she was always making bad ones.”

I had no idea what that meant, and right now I was too tired to care. “Are you close to Dad’s?” I asked.

“Just a few minutes away.”

“ ’Kay. When you get there, don’t tell him what I told you about her and Cole, okay? He doesn’t know but Diana does.”

“Okay.”

She didn’t speak much until she’d made it to Dad’s. I heard him in the background asking herwhat in the worldwas she doing home. I heard Diana shrilling, some rustling, and then it was quiet.

“I’m in your old room,” she murmured. “Now tell me what’s going on with Eve.”

I broke it all down for Zoey. Every single event that had happened since arriving at the cottage. I explained the knock on the door, the purse, and having gone to the sheriff’s office to file a report. I told her how little I trusted the only sheriff there and explained to her who Alex and Damian were. The spark plug thing definitely shook her.

“So, you think one of those guys did something to her?” she asked.

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