She nodded. “That’s good. I’m happy you’re not running. I really am.” She closed her eyes and took another drink before setting the glass down. “You have to let me go.”
“I can’t,” Yardley said desperately.
Sue Ellen looked at her and said softly, “Jessica, you have to let me go.”
“Please don’t ask me to do that.”
“Do you want to hear about what he did to me? About what it felt like to hear his footsteps come back every night and know what was about to happen to me? To beg him, ‘Please, please not again, please’ . . . and to have him laugh? He laughed when I would beg him.” Tears streamed down her cheeks, but a smile came to her lips. “He wasn’t laughing at the end.”
“I can’t just let you go. You have to leave the gun and come with me. They will kill you if they see a gun.”
“It’s not happening. You have to choose. I’m going to stand up and walk away, and you’re going to either let me go or tell them to come. And if they come, I’m going to die.”
“No, don’t do this. Don’t die here. Please.”
She rose.
“I wish, Jessica, that you and I would’ve met in different circumstances. It’s not every day you meet your soul mate, is it?”
“Don’t—”
Sue Ellen took Yardley’s face in her hands and gently kissed her lips. “Beautiful girl. You’re so much stronger than you know. You’ll heal that shattered heart one day.”
She pulled away, and Yardley let her hand slip from hers.
“Not soul mates,” Yardley said. Sue Ellen turned and looked at her. “Not soul mates . . . twin souls.”
Sue Ellen smiled and then turned around.
Yardley watched as she left the beach and strolled into a crowd on the street. She glanced back only once. Then she was gone.
Yardley felt emotion choke her, and she had to swallow it down. She closed her eyes and inhaled deeply, absorbing the salty scent of the ocean.
She took out her phone and sent a text message: She’s not here. We’ll try again tonight.
Then she watched the children playing in the water again, a grin on her lips as the Labrador came up to her and she rubbed behind his ear. A wave lazily lapped the shore, the sun reflecting off the ocean in bright gold, and she knew this was how she would always remember this moment.
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
Thank you to my wonderful publishers, Thomas & Mercer; my editor, Megha Parekh; my agent, Amy Tannenbaum; and all my readers who have stuck with me through the years. I’m more grateful than you can ever know.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
At the age of thirteen, when his best friend was interrogated by the police for over eight hours and confessed to a crime he didn’t commit, Victor Methos knew he would one day become a lawyer.
After graduating from law school at the University of Utah, Methos sharpened his teeth as a prosecutor for Salt Lake City before founding what would become the most successful criminal defense firm in Utah.
In ten years Methos conducted more than one hundred trials. One particular case stuck with him, and it eventually became the basis for his first major bestseller, The Neon Lawyer. Since that time, Methos has focused his work on legal thrillers and mysteries, earning a Harper Lee Prize nomination for The Hallows and an Edgar nomination for Best Novel for his title A Gambler’s Jury. He currently splits his time between southern Utah and Las Vegas.
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