The sun shone down brightly, as if nothing in the world were out of place and this day were like every other spring day before it.

But Katie knew good and well that it wasn’t.

Rose Marie Tatum had been buried a half hour earlier. And she’d been wearing the St. Sebastian medallion, the one the police had found around her neck in that shallow grave in the woods. Katie had given it to Mark to protect him. Since Rose hadn’t had anyone to protect her in this life, Katie hoped maybe St. Sebastian would protect her in the afterlife. It was worth a shot.

Dozens of students from Whitney had attended the service and the school had paid for Rose’s burial, along with the huge spray of red roses that covered her casket. Katie was glad for the turnout since she didn’t see anyone show up who acted like Rose’s family. A number of townsfolk had paid their respects, too, and the other waitress from the diner who had been Rose’s roommate. Katie heard that Rose’s mother had always been fonder of alcohol than she was of her own child, and no one had ever really been sure who her father was.

In a way, Rose had been as much an orphan as Tessa.

They’d both experienced plenty of pain way too early in life.

The police ruled Rose’s death an overdose and charged Steve Getty with manslaughter. Only Steve had disappeared from the school’s clinic in the middle of the night—twelve fresh stitches in his face—before the Barnard police could arrest him. Word had it that his ambassador father had swooped in and jetted off with him, taking him out of the country this time, most likely to a place where he couldn’t be extradited.

Slimy bastard, Joelle had texted Katie when everyone learned what Steve had done and that he’d skipped town. Now he got away with murder.

On the other hand, Peter Lupinski wasn’t getting away with anything, not this time around. He’d survived getting Tasered but faced three counts of murder in the first degree. Peter Mikhail Lupinski—the real Peter—would likely be locked up for the rest of his life. Cutting off a dead girl’s hand was the least of it. Dr. Capello wanted him committed to a psychiatric facility rather than the state prison. She was quoted in the Barnard Gazette as saying, “He’s severely physically and emotionally scarred. He isn’t fit to stand trial.”

In that same article, Katie read that they’d be digging up the bones from Peter Lupinski’s grave. Dr. Arnold and his associates at the hospital’s cadaver lab would consult with a forensic anthropologist to try to determine who had really died in the fire instead of Peter.

“He didn’t belong to anyone. No one missed him,” Tessa had said so dismissively. But Katie knew she was wrong.

Everyone belonged to someone. Everyone came from somewhere. Everyone had a name and a right to be properly put to rest.

How had Katie not guessed that her best friend was hiding something so big, so dark? Tessa had kept the secret well. Had guarded it fiercely. All to protect a brother too damaged to lead a normal life.

And Tessa had been damaged, too. According to the Gazette, the local prosecutor was still trying to decide what charges to press against her. Katie hoped Dr. Capello would help Tessa get treatment, too. Maybe she wasn’t too broken to be fixed.

No matter what Tessa had done, Katie felt incredibly sorry for her. She’d hardly had a chance to be anything but broken.

How she wished things had been different! If only Tessa had opened up to her, had let her help. In a way, Katie felt like she’d buried her best friend today, too.

And it sucked.

“Time to go,” Mark said, and tugged her hand as the crowd of mourners began to disperse.

Katie looked away from Rose’s grave and into Mark’s face. His neck was still mottled with bruises from Peter’s hands. But his eyes were calm, and she knew he was relieved to have the truth come out despite the rough path to get there.

“Do you believe in heaven?” she asked on a whim, thinking of her father and her grandfather. Of Rose Tatum and the Lupinskis. Surely they were in a better place.

“I guess I do,” Mark said, and glanced above them at the endless blue sky. Then he looked at her so warmly her heart melted. “If you don’t believe in something, you’ve got nothing, right?”

“Right.” Katie squeezed his hand and smiled.