Page 130 of The Last Session

He stared at his clasped hands for a long time, his lips pressed together.

I had to get him talking.

“When you were waiting outside the hospital that day, you wanted to run into me, right?” I asked gently. I was actually curious. “To make me think you were working with her parents?”

“Yeah.” He scratched his cheek. “I thought I’d have to wait longer, maybe until the end of the day. But you came out pretty quickly.”

“Who picked Catherine up?”

He pushed back his glossy curls. “Moon and Sol.”

“Are you serious?” I thought back to the video footage: the man tall and hunched, with a paunch. Her, tiny and blond. “So they were, what? In disguise? Wearingwigs?”

“Uh-huh.”

I’d considered this once, but someone had disproven it…

“You told me you’d sent photos of Moon and Sol to Diane,” I said as it clicked into place. “That she’d confirmed it wasn’t them.”

He just nodded. My stomach clenched at the level of organization that had taken place.

“Did you really find me with LinkedIn and Instagram?” I asked.

“Yup.” He tapped his fingers on the table. “I remember being shocked at your pictures, how much you looked like her. But my goal was just to talk to you and find out when Catherine was leaving the hospital.”

“So that Moon and Sol could get there first, right?” I felt disgust with myself for spilling this information so easily.

“Right.”

“So they didn’t think she’d come with them if they just showed up as themselves?”

“Well…” He shrugged. “We didn’t know what state Catherine was in. If she’d even say yes to seeing them. So when you said her parents were coming, it seemed like the easiest way.”

“Fake IDs and all.”

“It’s not that hard to make them.” He must’ve seen my expression, because he continued. “But for the record, I didn’t have anything to do with you signing up for this retreat.”

“But you agreed to keep playing the PI.”

“Yeah. They thought you’d open up to me. So we could find out if you were really her. Which, clearly, you are.” He held out a hand. “Those wereyourvisions, your dreams. And your decision to stay.”

“Oh, you all would’ve just let me leave?”

“When everyone else left? Of course.”

I wasn’t sure I believed that.

“But what about after?” I asked. “You trapped me. Steven left, and the other car… someone disabled it, right?” I was certain of it, as if I’d watched it happen in front of me.

“Well, at that point…” He rubbed at the table. “Moon was getting nervous about what Catherine was telling you. I mean, you’re sisters. She knew Catherine had mixed feelings about what was going to happen. But still—no one held a gun to your head. If you’d started walking out to the road, I would’ve gone with you.”

The words made me shiver. “Jonah—”

“It’s Joe.”

The name sounded vaguely familiar.Watch your fingers, Joe.Karen had said it to him at dinner two nights ago, but I’d been distracted by those jewel-toned bottles of wine.

“Joe.” I forced myself to take a deep breath. It meant something that he was here. That he was talking to me. “How did you get involved in all this?”

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