I don’t understand what’s happening here. Why does Margie have a gun? What is she doing here? How does she know Shane is Josh’s dad? I’m sure I never told her that. I never told anyone except Tim—and he wouldn’t have told her.

“Margie,” I gasp. “Why… why are you doing this? I thought we were friends.”

“Friends!” Margie throws back her head and laughs until her jowls shake. “No. We weren’t friends. I only tolerated you so that I could spend time with my grandson. That’s the only reason I didn’t spit in your face.”

My mouth falls open. “Your…”

“Josh is a very sweet boy,” she muses. “Not as sweet as my boy, but of course, he was raised by you, not me. All those years, your witch of a mother wouldn’t even tell us he existed. Can you believe that?”

I can only shake my head. “I don’t understand. What about your daughters? What about your grandchildren?”

She grits her teeth, her knuckles whitening as she clasps the gun tighter. “I don’t have any daughters. I have one son, and I have watched him rot in prison for the last ten years. And I have one grandson that I didn’t even know existed until a year ago.”

“You’re Shane’s mother,” I gasp.

“I didn’t expect you to remember me.” She shrugs. “We only met a few times, and it was a long time ago. And it wasn’t like I meant anything to you.”

It’s not just that. Pamela Nelson looks very different from the way she did a decade ago. I remember her as having dark hair and a curvy figure, but the woman I hired to take care of Josh was gray-haired and pleasantly plump. She entirely changed her appearance over the last decade. I didn’t have a chance.

“Mrs. Nelson…” I’ve got to appeal to her. I know she cares about Josh, and he adores her—she was much better with him than my mother ever was. Maybe she doesn’t realize what kind of monster her son is. Of course, she’s holding a gun, so I’m guessing she must understand

something. “Look, I know you love Shane, but he has done some terrible things. I was wrong about that night eleven years ago. It wasn’t Tim. I mean, it was, but he was working together with Shane. The two of them killed three people that night.”

Mrs. Nelson sneers at me. “Oh please. Is that really what you think?”

“Yes! It’s the truth. Tim and Shane were working together. While Shane was strangling me in the living room, Tim was upstairs, and he… he stabbed my best friend.”

“No,” she says. “He didn’t.” “You don’t know that!”

“Yes, I do.” She shakes the gun at me. “Because I’m the one who stabbed Chelsea.”

My whole body goes numb. What?

“You really think that goody two shoes Tim Reese would have done that?” She snorts. “He was just our patsy, starting with that girl he dated… Tracy Gifford. That was the plan Shane and I came up with—to let him live so the police would blame it all on him. And if you hadn’t gotten away, it would’ve worked.”

I can’t believe what I’m hearing. This doesn’t make sense. I know what I saw in Tim’s basement. “What about that woman, Kelli Underwood?”

She licks her chapped lips. “I had to get my son out of jail. I knew you were going over to Tim’s house that weekend, so I got everything ready. I even called in the anonymous tip for the police. And it was so helpful that the two of you exchanged keys so I could get into his basement.”

I stare at the barrel of the gun. This woman is crazy. She is completely bat shit crazy. How did I never see it? I even called up a reference, and they raved about her. I can’t imagine who I was talking to—the reference was obviously fake.

“It disgusted me to watch you dating that man.” She sneers at me. “Watching him treating my grandson like his own child. But I had to encourage you to stay with him. It was the only way to clear Shane’s name. And oh my Lord, you should have seen your face when he gave you that necklace I sold him at the flea market over the summer. I found that necklace on the floor of my house after you ran out, and I thought it might come in handy someday.”

My face burns. I should have known. I always believed Tim Reese was a good man. I should’ve trusted my gut.

“Why would you do it?” My ankle throbs, but I barely feel it. I need to keep her talking, keep her from pulling the trigger while I figure out a way out of this. “Why would you and Shane kill a bunch of innocent teenagers?” “Killing the other three was unfortunate,” Mrs. Nelson says in a voice

that doesn’t sound like she cares much at all. “You were the target, my dear. A lesson had to be taught.”

“Me…?”

She brushes a strand of gray hair from her face. “Did you ever wonder why your parents were so adamant that you couldn’t date Shane? You probably just thought it was because he was white trash. They never told you the real reason, did they? Because if they did, you would’ve stayed away from him instead of dating him behind their backs.”

I shake my head wordlessly.

“When Shane was five years old, I fell in love with your father.” Her voice cracks slightly. “We were together for almost a year. He was supposed to leave your mother for me. He told me he would. He was supposed to save us—me and Shane. But then he decided he couldn’t do it. He couldn’t leave your mother and he couldn’t leave you. So he left us instead. You got to live the life that Shane and I should have had.”

“I… I had no idea…”

“Of course you didn’t!” She tightens her grip on the gun. “You were too busy living your charmed life. You had no idea what your father did to us. And your mother knew all about it, and she wouldn’t give us a red cent. My son had to work all through high school just to help pay the mortgage here.” She pauses. “Those two deserved to die. I would have done it anyway—even if I didn’t have to do it to get you to come back here.”

I clasp a hand over my mouth. My parents’ accident. I had thought it was an act of God, but apparently not. This woman killed them. She’s even crazier than I gave her credit for.

I hadn’t been close to my parents. I never forgave them for the way they shunned me after I decided to have Shane’s baby. Although now I understand it a little better. I understand why they never wanted me to come back to Raker and hid my pregnancy from everyone they knew. It wasn’t

because they were ashamed of me—they didn’t want this crazy woman to find out she had a grandson.

“I told Shane what they did to me,” she says, “and we planned the whole thing together. It was all his idea. He is such a good son. He would do anything for his mother. Anything.”

“I’m sorry about what my parents did to you,” I say carefully. I’ve got to remain calm. For Josh’s sake.

“They could have at least told me about my grandchild!” she bursts out. “They took so much from me. I deserved to know about Josh. I deserved to be part of his life—not just the last six months!”

There are tears in Mrs. Nelson’s eyes. Maybe there’s a way to persuade her to put the gun down. Maybe I can reason with her. She does love Josh, after all. Despite how crazy she is, she has a good side. She couldn’t fake the way she was with him.

“Mrs. Nelson,” I say slowly. “Josh adores you. And you’ve been like part of the family these last few months. Can’t we find a way to work it out? To be a family together?”

For a moment, she almost seems to be considering it. She lowers the gun ever so slightly, her features softening. I take a tentative step forward, but then the gun goes right back up. “We can’t work it out.”

“Margie, please…” I say, even though it’s not her real name.

“No.” Her voice is firm. “We can’t trust you. You’ll betray us, just like your father did. The only way Josh, Shane, and I can be a family is if you’re out of the picture.”

“Please…” My knees tremble beneath me. “Please. You don’t have to do this.”

“I didn’t do it.” A smile creeps across her lips. “A drifter driving by did it. While Shane and Josh were in the woods, he shot you in the head and stole all your money. Very sad. Lucky thing Josh’s father is around to step it up.”

“Please…”

She’s going to kill me. Shane and Josh are going to come back from their outing in the woods, and they’re going to find me lying dead in the snow. Josh has always wanted to meet his father, but he needs me—his mother. He can’t grow up without me. I can’t let this happen. I can’t let these two maniacs raise him.

But I don’t know how to stop it.

Then a resounding thump echoes through the wind, coming from somewhere out in the woods. Mrs. Nelson jerks her head to the side at the sound, and now I see my chance. My only chance.

So I lunge at her, grabbing for her right wrist with everything I’ve got.