Page 100 of Vacation Friends

Maddie shook her head. “That’s conjecture.”

Logan smirked again, making it clear she didn’t give any credence to Maddie’s words.

The woman didn’t care about the truth.

She only cared about getting what she wanted.

Brody put his hand on Maddie’s elbow and pulled her away from Logan right in the nick of time—right before she said something she might regret.

“Let’s get back,” he murmured.

Maddie threw one last dirty look at Logan before walking away.

CHAPTER

FORTY-FIVE

“Don’t let her get to you,” Brody said as he continued to lead Maddie down the beach, away from Logan.

“I can’t believe she said that,” Maddie muttered, resisting the urge to steal a glance behind her shoulder at Logan again—and to gawk at her audacity. “I wasn’t out there with Jared. But if Logan told the detective that . . .”

“A shark is a shark. She’s the kind of woman who will do whatever it takes to get what she wants. I would just ignore her.”

Maddie wished it was that easy. “But it’s my word against hers.”

“The truth will win,” Brody assured her. “It has to.”

Maddie wanted to believe him. But she was having a hard time doing that. She’d seen plenty of people lose entirely too much because of lies.

She remembered the mugshot someone had sent her.

Could Logan be behind that too?

It was hard to say.

But someone knew about her past. If this person chose to release that information . . . it would look bad for Maddie.

Individuals like those at this retreat didn’t accept people with a criminal history—unless maybe they’d been found guilty of a white-collar offense.

But Maddie . . . she’d gone to prison for a horrible crime.

She’d paid her time.

Then she’d worked hard to prove she was a good person.

It was just one more reason why she’d continued to try to turn her life around after the car accident.

For the longest time, she hadn’t been able to forgive herself for her past. But the thought that maybe God could forgive her . . . that had changed the way she looked at life. She’d felt hope for the first time in years.

But had God really forgiven her?

Because after she had been found guilty of murder, her whole life had been turned upside down.

As soon as they reached the resort, Maddie’s phone buzzed and pulled her from her thoughts.

It was Detective Kalani.

She excused herself and took a few steps away from Brody. “Hello?”

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