was getting into hers. “Elena!” I called, stopping her.
She turned toward me, eyes narrowing in concentration and then widening a little in recognition. “Hi.”
I stopped in front of her, my heart rate increasing with nervousness. “Hey.”
“You didn’t join us.” She closed her car door and leaned into it, giving me a patient smile.
“No, but I wondered if you had time for a quick chat. I’m Jane.”
Elena’s eyebrows rose a little. “Well, Jane, okay. I was grabbing a book out of the car because I have an appointment soon …” She gestured to the hospital along the street.
“Another time?”
“No, we can have a quick chat.”
I gestured to her car.
“Okay.” She opened the driver’s side and slid in and I rounded the hood to the passenger side. My heart thundered.
The AC blew in the small car as I got in, but it was still stifling. Sweat gathered under my arms and behind my knees. I didn’t think it was because of the heat.
My unlikely companion sat patiently waiting for me to speak.
I turned to look into her warm brown eyes. “What’s the worst thing that’s ever happened to you? Is it cancer?”
She blew out air between her lips, considering my question. “Does it have to be one thing?”
“Ouch,” I whispered. “Life been that bad, huh?”
Her smile was wry but pained. “The worst thing that ever happened to me was losing my daughter. She’s still alive, but she has a drug problem, and no matter how I tried to help her, I somehow just kept pushing her away. What about you, Jane? Your boyfriend, his cancer?”
I flinched at the lie I’d told and stared out the windshield at the haze on the road. “I’ve had a few. But I guess the worst ones are the ones I still dream about. One sounds stupid because it happens to everyone … but it was the first time a guy broke my heart.” I smiled sadly, remembering the dark days after I thought Jamie had pushed me away. “The second … well, I still have nightmares about it.” I turned to Elena. “Do you know how memories fade over time … like the image loses its sharpness even if the emotion attached to it doesn’t?”
“I know what you mean, yeah.”
“This particular memory hasn’t. I still see Skye lying on that bed, clear as day. I still feel the fear that started in my feet as soon as I walked into her bedroom, because I knew she was gone before I even checked her pulse.”
“Oh, Jane.” Elena grabbed my hand and squeezed. “I am so sorry.”
“Overdose,” I explained. “Accidental.”
Sympathy brightened her eyes. “I found my kid like that. I was luckier in the end. She survived. I am so sorry, sweetheart. Was Skye your sister?”
“A friend. But like a big sister, really. She was my boyfriend’s big sister. He never got over it.”
“I imagine not.”
“What’s the worst thing you’ve ever done?” I tugged my hand from hers.
Whatever she saw in my expression made her flinch. “What do you mean?”
“I unwittingly abandoned my boyfriend when he needed me. That’s one of mine. I also found and shared with him his big sister’s diaries, where she unloaded all her secrets. Including the fact that this big-shot producer had raped her. His name is Foster Steadman. He has a man who works for him called Frank Kramer.”
Elena faltered, the color leaching from her face. “Why are you telling me this?”
“What’s the worst thing you’ve ever done, Elena?”
“Maybe we should continue this another time.” She gestured nervously to the door. “I really need to get to my appointment.”
I grabbed her by the wrist, my grip tight and unrelenting. “Jamie went to him. Confronted him. He had no idea what Steadman and Kramer were capable of. Like, for instance, paying off a cashier to take a bullet and identify an innocent man for a crime he didn’t commit.”
She tugged at my hand, her eyes bright. “No … I …”
“What’s the worst thing you’ve ever done, Elena?” I bit out, my fingernails digging into her skin.
She cried out, her face crumpling as she sobbed.
I released her, my chest heaving with emotion. “Why? Why did you do that to Jamie?”
Covering her face with her hands, she shook her head as her shoulders shuddered.
I waited.
I waited with more patience than I knew I had in me.
After what felt like a lifetime, Elena lifted her head, her face splotched, her eyes red and haunted. “I … I’m sorry,” she cried, more tears spilling down her wan