Chapter 61

• — Alexis Gallagher —
• The phone rang once, twice, three times. And nothing. I hung up on the fourth ring, feeling panic spread through my body like an electric current. Claire wasn’t answering, and I knew something was wrong. She never left me waiting this long. My mind was racing, but deep down, a terrible certainty was growing: George had done something. He’d always threatened, always insinuated, but I never thought he would actually go this far.
• I was sitting in the living room, staring at my phone as if it would somehow give me a miracle. The sun was setting outside, casting an orange glow through the window, with shadows stretching and curling around the house. The air felt heavy, suffocating. I felt powerless, and that feeling was tearing me apart.