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thought he was different, but turns out he’s like all the rest.
He wants the thrill of doing something forbidden, behind
closed doors. With a tight little body.” She motioned toward
me, toward my body.
“Ben’s so not like that.”
“Don’t tell me what Ben’s‘so not’ like!” she snapped. “I live
with him, sugar. I know him better than you ever will.”
I twisted the cap of the bottle back and forth, afraid of her
anger and what she might do. Who she might tell.
“Does your mama know about this?” She was a mind reader.
“She can get him for statutory rape.”
“The age of consent is sixteen.”
She let out a nasty laugh.“You’ve figured this all out, I see,”
she said.“Even if it’s not illegal, it’s immoral for a twenty-eight
year-old man to sleep with a seventeen-year-old girl.”
“Age is just a number.” I wrinkled my nose as the cliché
popped out of my idiotic mouth.
“And it’s immoral to sleep with two women at once and lie
to them about it.”
“It’s not at once.You are so yesterday to him!” I felt like a
bitch, but she deserved it.“You think he’s your boyfriend, but
he’s not.”
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diane chamberlain
She stared at me, then started laughing again. “Lord have
mercy,” she said, “I’m going to give that bastard one hell of a
talking-to.” She tilted her head to the side.“Was he your first?”
“None of your business.”
“I just bet he was. Men love that, don’t they? Popping the
cherry.”
“Don’t talk that way about him!” I said. “Don’t lump him
together with all the losers you’ve been—”
“Does your mama know you’re smoking weed?”
“What?”
“Don’t play innocent with me, Maggie. It reeks in here.”
Oh God. Now she had two things on me. My hand twisted
the bottle cap back and forth. Back and forth.
Suddenly, she stood up. When she spoke again, her voice
was totally different. She growled like a tiger. “Lay off my
man, girl,” she said. She picked up the flashlight and walked
to the door. “If you don’t, I’ll have to tell your mama what
you’re up to, and she’s got enough to worry about right now.
You sure don’t want to add to that now, do you, sugar?”
I threw the bottle hard—really hard—before I knew what
I was doing. It caught her on the side of her neck and she
screeched, dropping the flashlight.
“Bitch!” she said.
“I’m sorry!” I pressed my hands to my face. “I didn’t mean
to do that, Dawn! Honest!”
She picked up the flashlight and I thought she was going to
come after me with it, but she opened the door and ran onto
the front deck. I listened to the creak of the stairs and heard
her jump to the sand.
I slammed the door shut and turned the lock. Then I
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305
pulled my phone from my pocket and hit the speed dial for
Ben’s cell. No answer.
As fast as I could, I typed a text message into the keypad.
D knows.
Chapter Thirty-Four
Laurel
“HAVE A SEAT, PLEASE.” DENNIS SHARTELL led me into his
office and gestured toward one of the leather chairs in front
of a massive mahogany desk.
“I appreciate you seeing me so quickly,” I said as I sat down.
I’d only received his name from Ms. Terrell the day before, but
the attorney’s receptionist said he’d be able to squeeze me in.
“I can imagine what you’re going through,” he said as he sat
down on the other side of the desk. “I’ve heard the rumors.”
“You’ve heard them here? In Wilmington?”
“The fire was big news,” he said, “and although the officials
aren’t calling it arson,everyone knows it’s arson—or in legal ter
minology, the‘burning of a church.’ People love a good twist to
a story. What better twist than the hero turns out to be the villain?”
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307
“He’s not, though.”
He nodded, the overhead light glinting off his glasses. He was
a slender man, but soft looking, as though he didn’t have to
work hard at keeping the weight off. His face was long beneath
thinning dark hair, and he wore a smile that was equal parts kind
and self-confident. I liked him. I was practically in love with him.
He would help me make sense of this ridiculous mess.
“Tell me what you know,” he said, clicking his ballpoint pen
above a yellow legal pad.“What evidence do they have so far?”
“As far as I know, they just have the word of a few people
that Andy was outside during the lock-in. I don’t believe it,
though. Even if it’s true, so what? But my son is a very concrete
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