Read Online The Night Sister by Jennifer McMahon - Free Book Online

that clear. She’s the one who cut all ties, and acted like she barely recognized us.”
    She remembered passing Amy in the halls at school, how Amy would avoid catching Piper’s eye, making a point to look anywhere but at her. How Amy walked right by Piper on the school bus every morning and afternoon, calling to her new friends at the back of the bus, and ignoring that Piper had saved her a seat.
    “But she needed us,” Margot said, wiping at her eyes with the back of her hand, “and we weren’t there. Maybe this…this
nightmare
wouldn’t have happened if we’d tried harder.”
    “That’s insane. How can you think that?”
    Margot was crying hard now. “I never understood,” she said, “how you could turn your back on her so easily.”
    This was too much. Piper wanted to scream,
I’m not the one who turned my back,
but she just bit her lip. She recalled what Jason had said about keeping Margot calm, not letting her get worked up. She was doing a wonderful job so far.
    “Look at you,” Margot sobbed. “You don’t even seem upset by what happened. It’s like you don’t care at all.”
    It was true that once Amy broke things off and started to ignore their calls, Piper was too hurt and furious to keep trying. It seemed…pathetic to keep calling and leaving notes, begging Amy to talk to her, to keep saving Amy a seat on the bus. If Amy didn’t need Piper, Piper sure as hell didn’t need Amy. Amy had slammed the door shut, but maybe Piper went ahead and added a few locks for good measure.
    Piper took a deep breath and put her hand on her sister’s arm. “Of course I care, Margot.”
Too much,
she thought. That was always the problem, wasn’t it? She smiled at her sister and added gently, “It’s just that one of us has to keep her shit together. And at the moment, it’s me.”
    Margot laughed weakly.
    “I flew all the way out here as soon as I heard about Amy, didn’t I? But, honestly, right now my biggest concern is you and the baby.”
    “I appreciate that,” Margot said. “I do. It’s just that I haven’t been able to stop thinking about it, and God knows I can’t talk to Jason about it. And that
message…
Written on that old photo of Rose and Sylvie, the same one we found in the suitcase that summer, for Christ’s sake,” Margot said.
    “I know,” Piper said.
    “I can’t help thinking that someone—or something—is out there. That you and I are in terrible danger.” Margot rubbed her stomach. “The baby, too.”
    Piper shook her head, leaned in to stroke her sister’s hair. “We’re fine. We’re together. We’re safe. And there’s nothing out there trying to get us. What happened to Amy…it’s terrible, horrific, but it has nothing to do with you and me.”
    “But Amy left that message for
us,
Piper—because we’d understand it. Whatever happened out at the motel that night has something to do with what we found!”
    Piper felt the hair on the back of her neck stand up.
    “Margot,” Piper said, “seriously, I’m sure the cops are right—Amy was depressed, or mentally ill, and something just snapped inside her. It happens.”
    Margot shook her head and scooted back on the bed so she was taller against her backrest of pillows. “Jesus, Piper! You don’t really believe that, do you? You don’t really believe that Amy would be capable of something like this? Her own husband and son?”
    “Other than generic Christmas cards and Facebook, I haven’t seen or talked to Amy in years. I don’t know her at all.”
    She felt a lump growing in her throat.
    Margot plucked at the covers. “You’re wrong.” Her voice was calm now, low and serious. “You knew her better than anyone ever did.”
    The statement hung in the air between them; for the first time, Piper wondered how much her younger sister truly knew about everything that had gone on between her and Amy that summer.
    “But we were kids then. People change. I’ve changed.” She swallowed hard. Had she