“My sister,” I gasped, fumbling for my phone with trembling, numb fingers. “Amanda. She lives across town.”
Lauren nodded, her demeanor shifting to tactical support. “Go directly there. The police will need to interview both of you formally in the morning. But tonight, your only mission is survival and safety.”
I practically carried Hailey out of the hospital. We slipped through the sliding glass doors into the dark, rain-slicked evening. The drive to Amanda’s house was an exercise in pure terror. Every pair of headlights glaring in my rearview mirror made my heart seize. I gripped the leather of the steering wheel so fiercely my knuckles ached, convinced that Mark’s silver truck was going to swerve out of the gloom and run us off the road.
We pulled into Amanda’s driveway just as a fresh downpour began. She opened the door before I had even killed the engine, alerted by my frantic, unintelligible phone call. Seeing the raw devastation etched into our faces, Amanda skipped the questions. She simply wrapped her arms around Hailey’s trembling shoulders and ushered us into the warmth of her foyer.
