Page 28 of What Lies in the Woods

“At least my dad never hit me,” I said quietly. I’d seen her bruises. Always where they wouldn’t be noticed. She looked away. “Granted, hewas neglectful as fuck and it’s a miracle I didn’t get carted off by raccoons to raise as their own.”

She laughed at that, but quickly fell silent. “It wasn’t that bad. Oscar got it way worse, until he got bigger. And when he was around…” She didn’t finish the thought.

I’d never really understood why Cassidy worshipped her brother so much, but if he was protecting her, that explained it. I’d never known him as a protector. To me, he had been something else entirely.

She was looking at me sidelong. “I know you never liked Oscar.”

“I guess,” I said dismissively. As if he’d never done anything to me. As if I’d never let him.

There were things I’d never told Cassidy Green. They would only earn her pity—or her hate. I didn’t want either.

“The past is the past,” she said, like a mantra. She picked up her pace. “All I can do is be a good mom now. Take care of my own, you know? Nothing good comes from digging up old trouble.”

“Like Liv wants to.”

“You can’t tell me you’re not worried about what will happen when everything gets dragged into the open,” Cass said. “When people start asking questions about whatelsemight have been going on.”

“You mean about Stahl.” I stopped, foot braced against a root.

I could never quite sort out my own memories. I didn’t remember deciding to lie about seeing Stahl. I wasn’t sure when I had realized—admitted—that itwasa lie. After the hospital. Before the trial.

There was agony in not knowing the truth of my own recollections. Agony, and hope—because if things were that scattered, maybe Ihadremembered, for a little while.

“You know, don’t you?” I asked Cass.

She sighed, tucking her hair behind her ear. “That you never saw him? Yeah. I know.”

“How?” I asked.And who else knew?I wanted to add, but I restrained myself.

She hesitated. “It’s not like I knew for sure. But I know you. I’ve always been able to tell when you’re lying.”

“You knew all along,” I said, and she nodded, not looking at me. I thought she’d figured it out somewhere along the way. Had she really always known? My stomach clenched, guilt and shame roiling. “Why didn’t you say anything?”

She looked at me levelly. “You did what you had to do. It wasn’tourfault the cops fucked up the identification process. You were making up fortheirmistake. Liv and I saw him. It was the truth. It just wasn’tyourtruth.”

“My lies sent a man to prison for life.”

“And?” she said.

“You don’t think that’s a problem?” I asked her with a disbelieving laugh.

She crossed her arms. “Naomi. Stop. You’re beating yourself up for no reason. We saw him. Liv and I saw Stahl, one hundred percent. I promise. You believe that, don’t you? You don’t thinkwe’relying.”

“No, of course not,” I said. I opened my mouth, shut it, unable to put it into words. It didn’t matter whether I believed them, in a way. It didn’t even matter whether Stahl was guilty. A righteous lie was still a lie. A wicked life was still a life. I had destroyed a man, and I couldn’t trust my own memories to tell me that I’d done the right thing. I had to take it on faith. I had to trust in what other people had seen.

I’d never been good at trust.

“So why are you so freaked out now? Just because he died?” Cass’s lips wrinkled into a frown.

“I got a letter from Stahl’s son,” I said. “He knows that I lied. He says his father wasn’t the one who attacked me. Is there any way—if you were wrong—”

Cass held up a hand. “Hold on. He knows you lied? How?”

“I…” The letter hadn’t gone into detail, had it? My memory was foggy. “I’m not sure.”

“If heknewthat you’d lied, if heknewhis dad hadn’t done it, don’tyou think he would have said something? The guy is probably just messed up about his dad dying and lashing out. I think you need to ask yourself why you’re so eager to find something that’s your fault.”

I flinched. She gave me no ground, keeping her gaze locked on mine.

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