The Lying Game Complete Collection - Sara Shepard Page 0,81

the living room and threw her arms around Emma’s neck. “We’ve been looking all over for you!” Then she stood back and looked Emma up and down. “Why did you run off like that? You took off from us like the driveway was on fire!”

“I just needed to be alone,” Emma admitted, hoping the lie she’d concocted in Ethan’s car sounded believable. “I—something weird happened with Garrett.”

Laurel’s eyes were saucers. “What?”

Emma sank into the love seat and hugged a pillow into her chest. “It’s a long story.” She stared at the credenza across the room. Someone had brought all of the birthday presents in from the patio. She wondered if Sutton’s room still looked like a honeymoon suite.

“Did you have fun tonight, otherwise?” Laurel asked. An apprehensive look crossed her face.

Emma looked away. “Oh yeah. Definitely,” she lied. Informative, yes. Terrifying, definitely. But fun? Not even close.

“You weren’t . . . mad about anything?” Laurel flicked the tassels on the pillow. “Charlotte said you might’ve gone into my room. And that you might’ve . . . seen something. And then you ran crazily from us in the driveway. . . .”

Emma leaned into the cushions. Even though she wanted to admit that she’d seen the video, even though she wanted to believe Laurel, Sutton’s sister, was innocent in all this, trusting her was dangerous.

Emma’s brain swirled with what she needed to do. According to Ethan, the snuff film had happened almost a month ago—not the day before Emma had arrived. That meant Sutton had been around for weeks after that video was made and before her death. For all Emma knew, the strangling incident, the snuff film, had blown over long ago. But what had happened in between?

Emma looked up and regarded Laurel coldly, her face drained of feeling. All at once she knew what she should do. “I did see something in your room,” she said in a monotone.

Color drained from Laurel’s face. “What?”

Emma rose to her feet and slowly advanced toward Laurel. Laurel gasped when Emma wrapped her hands around her neck. Her eyes bulged. “Sutton!” she whimpered.

Emma froze for a long moment, her hands lightly around Laurel’s throat. Then she pulled away, rolled her eyes, and smacked Sutton’s sister playfully on the cheek. “Gotcha, bitch.”

It took a few seconds for relief to flood across Laurel’s face. She sat back in the chair and ran her hands over her throat. “You are so evil.”

“I know. But now we’re even.” Emma breezily returned to her seat. But her hands trembled as she moved a pillow out of the way. None of this was going to be easy. She was back to square one again—everyone was a suspect.

“There’s our birthday girl!” Mrs. Mercer’s voice rang out from the hall. She swept into the living room. Mr. Mercer followed with four cupcakes on a pink plate. A sparkler candle stuck out of the biggest one, which he positioned on the coffee table right in front of Emma. Red velvet. Her favorite.

Mrs. Mercer perched on the ottoman, lifting her hands as though conducting an orchestra. “Ready, everyone?”

They launched into a rousing version of “Happy Birthday,” Mr. Mercer trilling the high notes, Laurel singing loudly and strongly off-key. This was the first time this many people had sung “Happy Birthday” to Emma all at the same time.

When the song was over, Mrs. Mercer wrapped her arms around Emma’s shoulders. Mr. Mercer followed, then Laurel.

“Happy birthday, baby girl,” Mrs. Mercer said. “We love you.”

“Now make a wish,” Mr. Mercer instructed.

The sparkler on the cupcake crackled and snapped. Emma leaned forward and closed her eyes. Her birthday wish had been the same ever since Becky vanished: for a family. And now, amazingly, backwardly, technically, it had finally come true. But there was something bigger Emma needed to wish for now, something that eclipsed all of that: to find who had murdered her twin sister, Sutton. Once and for all.

I leaned in close. That was what I wanted, too. Even dead girls deserved birthday wishes.

Emma repeated the wish once, twice, three times in her head and exhaled strongly, like she was blowing away all her past. The sparkler flickered and went out. Everyone applauded and Emma smiled.

And so did I. My sister had blown out the candle in one breath. That meant our wishes were definitely going to come true.

Epilogue

I hung around my bedroom as she got ready to go to sleep that night, waiting, thinking. Staring at the items that used to be mine. Waiting