Page 34 (1/2)

I pressed the button to end the agony I’d seen enough But as the wo them around? From what I understood, Erin’s babies had passed away in two different houses One was her mother’s, and one was the house she and her husband lived in before buying the one they had now They’ddeaths

I sih How she’d survived

The rooht The senseless loss of life sparked a fa for the second time in as many days, and before I could stop it, panic slammed into me Stole my breath Ripped at my throat

I looked down at my hands At my arms They were eht of that emptiness like a boulder in my stomach It pulled me farther down below the surface It suffocated I had soot I forgot

It was so s that I’d prole atom that would someday split and spark a nuclear reaction It would set the world on fire It would free the nite the fires of revolution like nothing the human race had ever seen And I’d misplaced it I’d lost it

I scratched at the linoleuone far

No Wait It was a dreaain I blinked Tried to focus on the present Tried to get a firrip on my sense of time and place

When I finally kicked my way back to the surface, I shook uncontrollably Nausea took hold, and bile scalded the back of my throat I tried to s it down but choked on it instead, doubling over as it racked my body

"Janey?"

I shook out ony at the sound of Cookie’s voice

"Crap," I said as she rushed in and knelt besideI dropped a bottle of mustard"

"Oh, sweetheart" She wrapped her arms around me, and I re from a mile away Luckily, she didn’t run in the opposite direction

"I’ across fro her darnedest to flirt, but he seemed preoccupied His head down His ?" he asked, his voice harsh

His question surprisedWhy?"

Francie looked back and forth between us, trying to gather as much intel as possible, to assess if I was a real threat or not

"So, anyway," she said, apparently coht? Like he had the right to call me Red It’s natural, by the way"

He hadn’t taken his eyes off me, and I wanted to melt into him

"Don’t you think?" Francie asked, but I had no idea what direction she’d taken in her thrilling tales of Francie in Wonderland Then I realized she wasn’t talking to nored her

She bit her bottoet back to work"

I felt bad for her Or I did before she tried to turn lare Holy crap and damn Now they both hated me

At least Cookie still liked me

"I hate you," Cookie said as she checked her phone "Just so you know"