to choose would break her, that she would fi

stent pounding on the front door. I looked out the window and saw

tones. Then my father looked up the stairs, his eyes finding

e officers called out. "Y

our town, with her being pregnant, her word was enough to issue a warrant. It was a he-said, she-said situation, and she

, I saw Emily standing on her porch across the street, watching. Her parents were flanking her,

ld them about Daniel Sterling, about the af

' cufflink. It's in the guest ro

er and shook his head. "There's no cufflink. The gi

and covered her tracks. My only p

ays blurred into one another. My parents hired a lawyer, a man with tired eyes who told me my cas

t was Emily. She looked pale and

ng," she said, standing on

Emily?" I asked, my

low. "I can tell them it was all a mis

unwanted, rose in my chest.

g closer. "You have to t

t w

said you might have something else. A letter, a

o save me. She was here to finish the job, to t

d in the small room. "There's nothing else, Emily. T

Give it to me, Ethan, and I promise I'll get you out

narled. "Get o

om the inside. I stopped eating. I felt my body growing weaker, my mind foggier. But one

he trial. My health had deteriorated. I was runn

ity, perhaps-in her eyes. "Just give me what Daniel wan

oment you decided to protect h

what she came for. Her expression hardened. "Fine," she

footsteps echoing down the hall,

sentence was ten years in a state prison. For a y

sion of a perp walk, a public shaming. People I'd known my whole life stared at me, some with pity, others with contempt. I saw

It was Emily. She was watching the car, her hand resting on her swollen belly. For a momen

car picked up speed, and

uickly. The cough became pneumonia. The prison infirmary was un

ter curse on the names Emily Peterson and Daniel Sterling. My life, my