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"I tried to tell her I’ve been trying to call her since I found out she existed, but I feel responsible He’s a killer, and he stayed free because I lied for hiain I’ve known for all these years, and somehow it just never occurred to ht of it" My voice was pitched low, but it seeh the stunned silence of the car

Everyone began to speak at once

"You are not responsible for this," James said, his voice firm and harsh and full of pain

"You couldn’t have known, Buttercup," Stephan said, his voice passionately sincere

"Please don’t do that to yourself," Javier inored the reassurances, feeling the weight of her death like a heavy burden on uilt was the fear My father had killed at least to he’d threatened to do to me more times than I could count Even with the nu news of Sharon’s death, what I felt theterror that ran so deep I couldn’t remember a time that it hadn’t been a part oflook with Ja helplessness that mirrored my own