Not Claire.
Not Derek.
Melissa Ward.
My stomach dropped.
I looked at Claire.
“No.”
She whispered, “Cole…”
“Who is Melissa?”
Claire covered her face.
Derek looked between us.
“Who the hell is Melissa?”
I already knew the answer.
Or part of it.
Melissa Ward had been Claire’s younger sister.
She died nine years earlier.
Car accident.
At least, that was what I had been told.
I remember holding
Claire in the hospital hallway.
I remember choosing flowers.
I remember carrying the casket with Claire’s father.
I remember Claire screaming when the cemetery workers lowered it.
“You used your dead sister’s name?”
Rebecca shook her head.
“No.”
My eyes turned toward her.
“What do you mean?”
Rebecca’s expression had changed.
The sarcasm was gone.
Now she looked almost gentle.
“Cole, Melissa Ward is alive.”
The gym vanished.
Every sound vanished.
I felt as though someone had opened the floor beneath me.
