Page 42 of The Lake of Lost Girls

It showed Jess in a messy dorm room, a radiant smile on her gorgeous face. Her arms were wrapped tightly around the neck of a handsome boy with dark hair and a contagious, familiar grin.

My entire body started to tremble.

There was another photo of the young couple. The boy’s lips pressed to the side of Jess’s neck, his hands tucked into the pockets of her jeans. They were obviously smitten with each other.

And yet another of the two kissing at the edge of a large, very recognizable body of water. It was taken at an angle that they had obviously propped up the camera and put it on a timer. The Doll’s Eyes’ red berries grew at their feet. You could tell that, to each other, no one else existed.

I let out a sob and pushed the pictures away.

I should have taken solace in seeing my sister happy.

But I couldn’t. Seeing them filled me with a sadness that consumed me.

Because yes, my sister had obviously been in love.

Deeply in love.

With Ryan McKay.

CHAPTER9

JESSICA

Christmas Break 1998

I HAD BEENhome for over three weeks and I was losing my mind.

If it weren’t for my little sister, I would have driven back to campus already. Or walked. Or run. Anything to get me away from here.

I lay on my bed, listening to music, staring at the ceiling. I took a drink from the bottle of vodka I had snuck from my parents’ liquor cabinet. But not even the alcohol could numb the restless need to flee.

Nothing in my room had changed since I had left for college, yet things felt different. The walls were the same, the furniture the same, yet I wasn’t.

Ihad changed.

More than my family could, or would, ever realize.

There was a knock at the door and I sat up, screwing the lid on the vodka bottle and shoving it beneath my pillow. I popped a mint in my mouth and put on a sweet smile, knowing that’s what my parents would expect to see. The familiar smile of their eldest child—smart, capable, responsible.

A smile drowning in insincerity.

“Jessica, we need to talk.” Mom opened the door and came inside without waiting for me to answer. I realized shenever waited. She was always pushing. Always invading. My space was her space.

She was beautiful. Carefully put together and effortlessly stylish. People said we looked more like sisters than mother and daughter. I knew she loved that, even if it made me feel uncomfortable. She would loop her arm through mine and say we were a couple of girlfriends. I would laugh with her, all the while my chest constricting so tightly I could hardly breathe.

I never wanted her to be my friend. I had enough of those.

I wanted her to be someone I could talk to, someone who wouldn’t judge me. Someone I could trust to protect me from the bad stuff.

But I didn’t get that with Cara Fadley and I never would.

Mom sat down on my bed, holding out a copy of the local paper, pointing to the front page. “Did you know about this?”

I read the headline, my stomach dropping.

Another Girl Missing at Local College.

“It’s nothing, Mom—”

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