Laura
Laura was out shopping for the perfect dress to wear to the special dinner she had planned with Charlie over their little Saturday getaway when the email from “Sasha” arrived. She started to read it among the aisles of vintage dresses at her favorite shop but had to rush into one of the dressing rooms so that she could finish in privacy.
Laura couldn’t remember the last time she’d cried. Could it have been on the night she pretended to die? Plunging into that icy water had been more painful than she could have ever planned for, and it was hard to remember, but she thought there might have been tears of agony streaming down her face when she finally stepped out of the water and into the darkness, almost a mile downstream. It wasn’t as she recovered from surgery, even though that was an entirely different pain. By then Laura was too focused on the future to think about what she had decided to endure.
These were different tears, and Laura knew that she hadn’t experienced their variety in years and years. She didn’t like to cry. It seemed like such a waste of energy and time. But right now the thought of what she’d done to Lexi was too much to bear, especially now that she was almost certain Lexi knew she was alive. Laura didn’t know how it was possible or what had given her secret away, but this email made it clear. Lexi had figured out the CO secret. Now, of course, she wanted to see her older sister, and she was trying to tell her that she didn’t need to do what she had done. That was the part that really made Laura’s stomach knot up and her throat tighten.
But Lexi didn’t know that this was not about Sarah running away from her indifferent parents and the bullies that wronged her—it was about stopping the Charlies and Amandas of the world from continuing to use their power to do evil, evil things. She had to make sure that no other person was ever put in her shoes.
Laura couldn’t imagine Lexi understanding or accepting her choices. Even if that was possible, she couldn’t take the risk of anyone else finding out the truth. The plan had always involved cutting ties forever. That was the choice she made on the night she ended the first version of her life. This was more important than what she left behind—even more important than Lexi. She missed her now, but Lexi would be better off in the long run without Sarah, and without Laura.
But that didn’t solve the problem of “Sasha’s” inconvenient invite to what had to be a strange, memorial get-together with Charlie, Amanda, Kit, and Miller. This was not what Laura needed four days before the final phase of her plan came together. She didn’t care if the other three spent their Saturday night in the cemetery where she was memorialized, but she needed Charlie in a cabin in Beacon, New York. The details were coming together perfectly, and on the perfect day. Lexi’s little revenge moment couldn’t possibly top what Laura had put together. It had to be stopped.
Maybe Charlie would say no to whatever Sasha requested and go with Laura anyway? It was impossible for her to know what Lexi’s email to Charlie said, so that was a tricky assumption. If he did tell Laura there was a change of plans, would he tell the truth? It was hard to imagine Charlie confessing that the girl terrorizing him was back, and that she had enough information to scare him into doing whatever she threatened. Charlie still hadn’t confessed to Laura what really happened that night. She couldn’t see him destroying all the progress he’d made on their relationship since they started to get back together. If Charlie cancelled, the only option was for Laura to reach out to Lexi and figure out a way to make her stop. That was going to require a very clever approach. Laura would have to work on that over the next twenty-four hours to be sure she had a back-up plan. In the meantime, she also needed to make sure Charlie knew just how important this weekend was, and that he absolutely could not cancel.
Laura took a deep breath, wiped her eyes, and left the dressing room. She didn’t feel like searching through the racks anymore, but luckily she’d already found a low-cut, red dress among the 70s-style goodies that would work perfectly. She grabbed it, paid at the register, then left to grab two juices over at Clover as a surprise for Charlie. They were planning to get together later that night to make a plan for their road trip up to Beacon.
Laura drove to the juice spot’s strip-mall parking lot, but she never made it out of her car. Before she even turned off the engine, her eyes caught something that made her freeze. Through the passenger side window of her convertible was the outline of a familiar person. He was tall, thin, and scruffy from what looked like a few days without a shave. He wore a baseball cap low over his eyes and those ski-style sunglasses with the rainbow-colored lenses that covered the entire top half of his face. Laura tried to look closer without moving her body an inch. She didn’t think he could see her from that far away, but she couldn’t take any risks.
After checking his phone, he got into a large, white sedan that looked more like something a retired couple would drive and backed out of his parking spot. That’s when Laura realized that she hadn’t been breathing since the second she saw him.
There is no reason in the world that Andrew Craig should be in Englewood, New Jersey, Laura thought to herself. For one, he was supposed to be at medical school in San Francisco, but more importantly, a pretty terrifying legal document stated that he cannot be within one hundred feet of one Laura Rivers or he’ll be thrown straight in jail.
“There’s no way that’s Andrew,” Laura said out loud this time, but she still couldn’t bring herself to get out of the car until he’d driven out of the lot and far away down the street. Even then, she felt safer not getting out of the car. Charlie would have to live without a juice.