“Please, John! He’s only sixteen year old and he’s in jail and—”
I’m sobbing now into the phone. I’m two seconds away from completely losing it, if I haven’t already. I don’t know how this could be happening. I was so careful. How did I get the wrong Olivia?
“Erika, Erika…” Landon’s voice cuts through my sobs. “Look, calm down. He… he didn’t tell me anything. Okay?”
I gulp, trying to catch my breath. “But you think he did it.”
It’s not a question.
Our attorney is silent for a moment. “Yes, I do. Come on, Erika. He obviously did it. The evidence is overwhelming.” He gives me a second to absorb this. “But look, even if she’s dead and he buried her, he can offer to lead the police to her body in exchange for leniency. A life sentence as opposed to the death penalty.”
“Do you think she’s dead?” I ask in a voice that is barely a whisper.
Landon is silent for what seems like an eternity. “Honestly? Yes. I think she’s already dead. If she wasn’t at first, he probably realized he had to get rid of her to destroy the evidence.”
“God,” I whisper. I wipe my eyes with the back of my fingers.
“But I’ll do my best for him,” Landon says. “Whatever he did, I’ll fight for him. That’s my job.”
Why? That’s the question I want to ask. Because if Liam really killed that girl, he should be locked away in prison. He should be in a place where he can’t hurt anyone ever again.
I spent his entire childhood trying to protect him from himself. I have failed.
Chapter 44
Erika
When I come downstairs later in the evening to force myself to eat some dinner, I find Hannah sitting on the sofa in the living room, slouched down as she watches television. I get close enough that I can see what’s on the screen. It’s The Princess Bride.
The Princess Bride used to be my favorite movie when I was a kid. When Hannah was four years old, I showed it to her and Liam for the first time. Liam didn’t think much of it, but Hannah loved it. It became her favorite movie, and I think it still is. It’s a comfort movie. It’s her bowl of chicken soup.
I stand there for a moment, watching Hannah watch the movie. Her eyes are pinned on the screen, and she mouths the words along with the characters. She could probably recite every line in this movie from memory. Actually, so could I.
“Can I join you?” I ask.
Hannah looks up at me with her blue eyes rimmed with red. The last time I saw her, she was screaming at me. But now she lifts one shoulder. “As you wish.”
It’s a line from the movie. An olive branch?
I sit down on the sofa next to Hannah, but leaving a respectable distance between us. If I sit too close, she’ll complain I’m stifling her. But sitting too far away will make her unhappy too. I can’t figure out how to make Hannah happy—I never could. Even when she was an infant, she would howl her lungs out while I would beg her to tell me what was wrong. Even two-year-old Liam commented once, “My baby sister is always sad.”
Fourteen years later, nothing has changed.
“I’m sorry you had to see that happen earlier,” I say to Hannah.
She doesn’t take her eyes off the screen. “It wasn’t your fault.”
“I know, but…”
She turns to look at me. “You really think he did it, don’t you?”
I clear my throat. “Well, I don’t know for sure. I mean—”
“That’s why you hired that guy to scare off all the girls Liam likes.”
My mouth falls open. Hannah knew about that? It hadn’t even occurred to me she might know. I thought that was my deep dark secret.
“One of them told me.” Her eyes flick back at the television screen. “I assumed you were behind it. Considering you were the one who sent him to the shrink.”
“You know about that?”
“Liam told me.”
I suck in a breath. “I’m really sorry, Hannah. I’m sorry you got caught up in all of this. I promise I’ll do my best to keep you out of it from now on.”
Hannah picks up the remote control and shuts off the television. She faces me now, her eyes filling with tears. “I don’t want to be kept out of it. I just want my brother back home.”
Hannah’s loyalty to Liam is understandable. Whatever else anyone can say about Liam, he’s a good big brother. People warned me when I got pregnant that bringing a newborn home when you’ve already got a two-year-old is a recipe for jealousy. One of my girlfriends told me she constantly had to protect her infant from her toddler.