Page 52 of Amnesty

“You had some kind of panic attack,” he said, concern darkening his face. “Being down there was too much.”

It all came back to me, and I shuddered. “We’re out?”

“Of course. I carried you out the second you collapsed.”

“I think I threw up.” I wrapped an arm around my belly.

“It’s okay. That place makes me wanna barf, too.”

I wanted to smile, but reality was too much right now. “I want to leave.” I asserted.

“Me, too. This place sucks.”

I grabbed his wrist. He gazed at me with a question in his eyes. “What about Sadie?”

“I’ll get her and then we can go.” He paused. “You okay?”

I nodded firmly, and he left my side.

So she was coming with us, then. Of course she was. Leaving her here was not an option. I, of all people, knew what she’d been through. Even just the small portion I recalled was hell.

And she remembered it all.

She belonged in Lake Loch. She deserved to have her life back. Maggie was her mother’s best friend. Joline and Jeremy knew her parents, and Eddie was her childhood love. Even Robbie had been her friend.

Those people, they were her people.

They were mine, too, right?

Everyone had been missing Sadie so much for the past eleven years. So much they’d all wanted to believe I’d been her. They opened their arms to me, their homes. Was it all because they thought I was her?

I know I wasn’t supposed to feel I was living someone else’s life because technically all the time I spent living in Lake Loch was mine.

But I couldn’t help it.

I couldn’t help but wonder just how drastically the answers I found today would change everything.

We needed to get the hell out of here. No one was here on Rumor Island, but that could change at any moment.

There wasn’t one doubt in my mind that there was a man lurking somewhere, a man who’d hurt Amnesia and Sadie.

Holy shit, I found Sadie.

There was no way in hell the widow could have done all this on her own.

Leaving Am up top, I leapt back down into the hole, sort of surprised she hadn’t followed us out when I rushed (rather awkwardly) up the ladder with Amnesia.

“Sadie?” I asked, not sure how to approach her. I wanted to snatch her up and run like hell, but I held myself back. She was fragile; that much was entirely obvious. My God, the way she cowered when she thought the man was coming back…

If I hadn’t wanted him dead before, now the urge was tenfold.

“What happened?” she asked, her voice small in the dark.

“It’s okay.” I promised. “Being back here is, uh, hard for Amnesia.” That sounded stupid to my ears. Stupid and insensitive. This was so much more than “hard” on her, and Sadie, too.

“You call her Amnesia?” she asked curiously, moving back into the soft glow of the lantern.

“That’s the name she gave herself.”

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