The waves crash against the beach. Over and over. It almost sounds like the water is calling my name. It’s ready for me. Dawn, Dawn, Dawn…
It’s time to jump.
“Dawn!”
Okay, that sounded a bit too much like my name.
I whip my head around. For a second, I am blinded by a flash of light. I shield my eyes, and I realize that it’s a phone flashlight. Somebody is standing on the other end of the pier.
“Dawn!”
I scramble to my feet. I squint into the mist and can barely make out a figure walking toward me. At first, their face is in the shadows, but it’s not Caleb. Wrong build. It looks like a woman, and the voice is female.
“Dawn!”
She takes another step forward, and her facial features become clear. My stomach turns.
It’s Natalie.
What is she doing here?
She shuts off the flashlight on her phone. She sticks her hands up in the air like I’ve got a gun. If only. If I had a gun right now, she would be dead. And there would be no witnesses.
I thought about that. I considered a simpler plan. Kill Natalie. Then I wouldn’t have to fake my own death and go on the run. Except death is too easy for her. I wanted her to suffer the way I have suffered. The way Mia suffered before she decided to end it all.
“Please don’t jump.” Natalie’s eyes flicker down to the cinderblock at my feet. “Please don’t do this.”
“Don’t tell me what to do.” I clench my teeth. “How did you find me here?”
“Caleb told me what was going on.”
If I wasn’t angry before, I’m furious now. How could he? How could he go to her after all we went through to frame her? Why couldn’t he just let this happen? “He had no right.”
“I’m glad he told me.” The wind whips at Natalie’s face, and she picks strands of blond hair out of her eyes. “I had no idea you knew Amelia.”
I hate the sound of my best friend’s name on this woman’s lips. “Knew her? She was my best friend. My only friend.”
“I know. I’m sorry.”
“You killed her! You and your buddy Tara tormented her until she slit her wrists!”
Natalie flinches. “I know. And I’m so sorry. All I can say is that I was only seventeen years old. I didn’t know better.”
“No, I don’t accept that. Seventeen is old enough to know better.”
She takes a step toward me and I take a step back. Although I need to be careful about that—I don’t want to fall yet. “Listen to me,” she says. “You hate me, but don’t you think I feel terrible about what happened to Amelia? I do. Of course I do. Every single day since then, I have blamed myself. Why do you think I started this charity run? I’ve been trying to make it up to her.”
“Too late.”
We stare at each other for a moment. I’m wearing just a light jacket that belonged to Caleb, and I’m shivering in it. We didn’t want to risk taking any of my own coats out of the house. The sleeves are far too long on me. I rolled them up, but they’re still almost down to my fingertips.
“Look,” Natalie says, “I know everything. Seth does too. If you jump, it won’t do any good. You can’t frame me for murder anymore.”
It’s the first thing she’s said that’s gotten through to me. She’s right. If Caleb blabbed about our plan, she’ll never go to prison for this. He has ruined everything. Everything we worked for. How could he do this to me? He couldn’t possibly love me if he would betray me this way.
Natalie knows who I am now. She’s ready for me. I had a chance to get revenge, and Caleb blew it. I wanted to make Natalie pay for what she did to Mia, but it’s not going to happen. There’s only one way left to make her pay.
I have to kill her. Caleb would never let me do it, but he’s not here right now. He can’t stop me. I have to end this.
Right here. Right now.
Chapter Sixty
NATALIE
I can’t tell if I’ve gotten through to Dawn. She’s difficult to read. She doesn’t show anger on her face the way Caleb did. She still hates me, but I don’t know what she’ll do next.
Will she still try to kill herself? Did anything I say resonate with her?
She bends down and picks up the cinderblock. I’m not sure why, but there’s nothing good she could be doing with the cinderblock. I step closer, scared she’s going to toss the block into the water, and then it will pull her in. I don’t think I can save her easily if she does that. But I’m ready to jump in if I have to. I’ll try.
But she doesn’t do that. Instead, she heaves the cinderblock into the air, holding it above her head. She lifts her eyes to meet mine, and all of a sudden, I realize what she’s doing.
She’s planning to beat me to death with the cinderblock.
Oh God.
It wouldn’t be hard. That thing has got to weigh at least thirty pounds. A few good clocks on the head, and that would be the end of me. She would finally have her revenge.
“Dawn,” I gasp. “What are you doing?”
“What I should have done years ago.” Her voice is flat, her eyes dull. “I’m going to make sure you can never hurt anybody ever again.”
“Dawn, please don’t do this.” I clutch my purse to my chest and stumble backward. “I told you, I’m so sorry for what I did to Amelia. But killing me won’t change anything. It won’t bring her back.”
“And you stole the man I love…”
“Stole him?” I shake my head. “I didn’t steal Caleb!”
“It wasn’t enough that you killed my best friend. You also had to have him too.”
She has really lost it. I’m not sure I can talk her down anymore. “Dawn, Caleb was the one who asked me out. I thought he was single, for God’s sake!”
“I loved him.” A few flecks of saliva hit me in the face. “He was the last good thing in my life—the only good thing—and you took him from me! And now he likes you better.”
“That’s not true!”
“Yes, he does! Of course he does!”
“He doesn’t! He hates me, just like you do.”
“Liar! He used to hate you. But not anymore. He’s fallen under your spell, like everyone else… Why else would he betray me this way?
Her eyes are wet. It hits me that as angry as she is about Amelia and what I did all those years ago, she’s just as furious that I “stole” Caleb from her. Maybe even more so. I’ll never forget the anguished look on Caleb’s face when he thought Dawn might kill herself. It turns out she feels the same way about him.
Apparently, Caleb is the one. Just not my one.
But she refuses to believe he has no real feelings for me. She’s lost her grip on reality, which was tenuous to begin with. She doesn’t care anymore what’s true. She only cares about getting revenge. Dawn is small and skinny, but her arms aren’t even shaking as she holds up the cinderblock. That thing will do damage no matter where it lands.
I’ve got to do something to stop her.
I fumble around inside my purse. My fingers close around the spray bottle of mace and I yank it out. Dawn’s eyes fill with confusion, and then a second later, I hit the nozzle. The chemical comes spraying out in a thick cloud, and then her eyes are filled with mace (whatever that is).