Fallen

Other girls had given birth at Lilith House. Three of them, at least.

She looked around at the peeling walls. “What happened here?” she whispered.

Scarlett wandered down the hall, pulled by the sound of Haddie giggling. Her lips tipped as she came to the doorway where the girls were still playing. Millie was dancing in front of the window, using a ray of sun as a spotlight just as she and Kandace had once done.

She was laughing, her dimple flashing, eyes alight with unabashed joy. Scarlett smiled softly. In that moment, Millie reminded her so much of Kandi—the way she moved, the way she threw her head back—but that was possibly because she’d been in Scarlett’s thoughts for the last few days. She was seeing things she wanted to see. Clinging to a friend who had lost her way. Then lost her life.

Millie spun around again, tipped her head to the side, and winked at Haddie, laughing.

Scarlett’s heart stalled.

Oh my God.

It can’t be. She can’t be . . .

Scarlett knew that smile. It flashed in front of her and in her memory as well. The glimpse of a soul she’d once known and loved. It wasn’t just wishful thinking, recalling a face she’d missed for years.

No, that effervescent, enthralling grin . . .

It was Kandace’s smile.CHAPTER FORTY-ONEThirteen Years AgoCamden whipped around, letting out a slow breath when he saw it was her. “Hey,” Kandace said.

Camden lowered the small animal in his hands to the ground, his expression bleak. “Hi,” he said quietly.

Kandace stepped closer, peering down at the small thing he’d placed on the forest floor. A baby bird. “Is it—?”

“Yes. It was too late.” Camden cast his eyes downward as though in apology for not saving one of God’s creatures.

“You can’t save every baby animal you find,” she said. He’d told her it was like the baby animals came to him, but she knew that couldn’t be the case. Injured animals could no more seek him, nor anyone, out than they could call an emergency vet. It was just nature, harsh and unforgiving to the weakest among its inhabitants. And that happened to be the young and the helpless. Kandace was pretty sure injured baby animals could be found everywhere—for anyone—if they took the time to look. Camden, little dreamboat that he was, thought the animals were delivered straight to him because he took immediate responsibility for them. Sweet, sweet kid.

“I know,” he said, but he didn’t appear to be convinced of his own words. Kandace took a seat on a low rock next to the one on which Camden sat, the dead baby bird lying at his feet. The forest grew a smidge brighter as the sun rose higher in the sky. She squinted toward the row of trees that separated the forest from the Lilith House grounds, her baby giving a strong kick from within. Kandace pulled her uniform away from her body as much as possible. She didn’t want Camden to know this secret. There was no reason.

It was her turn to take responsibility for the innocent.

“You shouldn’t risk this,” he said after a moment. “Coming out here. You should stop. They’ll catch you eventually.”

“I know.” And she did. The risk she was taking was monumental. Yes, there was no reason for him to know about the baby, but she did need his help for something else. He was the only one she believed she could trust. “I won’t be coming out here anymore. I’m going to leave. It’s time.”

Dreamboat’s head came up, lips parting, but for a moment he simply blinked at her. “What?”

“I have to.” Kandace squinted off behind him for a moment before meeting his eyes. “I have proof,” she told him. “I think they did something to your mother, to Georgia’s mother, and to Mason’s. I don’t think they left of their own will.”

He blinked again, his forehead creasing as he shook his head. “Why?”

“I don’t know exactly, but with what I have, there will be an investigation. People will be questioned. You’ll be taken away from Lilith House.”

With those words his gaze snapped to hers, but what she was telling him seemed to have rendered him mute. “Listen, Dreamboat, you know they’re abusing us here. I believe they abused your mother too.”

He looked down, two spots appearing high on his cheekbones. He looked ashamed and Kandace wondered if he remembered being in the room with her as she was being raped or not. Her own shame spiraled inside her. If he didn’t . . . she preferred to leave it that way. When she spoke next, she gentled her voice. “I think the town is in on it, or at least its officials. They have to be. And they’re getting away with it.” She reached out and put her hand on top of his where it lay on his knee. His gaze went to it, thick eyelashes creating dark crescent moons on his cheeks. She heard movement somewhere nearby, the snap of a twig or the crunch of a leaf and though they both looked in the same direction from which it’d come, each looked away after a moment of silence.