Page 10 (1/2)

PROLOGUE

He hadn't been in Wilton for more than a day before he kneas the kind of city he'd never settle in for good It was too touristy, and the whole place see While the historic district had the kind of porch-fronted ho and sprawling radually gave way to a commercial area of strip malls, convenience stores, chain restaurants, and car dealerships Endless traffic snaked through the district, growing even more unbearable in the summers

But the grounds of UNC Wilined a caly architecture of the sixties and seventies There were a few of those buildings, especially at the fringes of the university, but the central quads had proved to be an oasis of sorts--shaded ays and gard and Kenan Halls gleaht

He admired the commons as well There was a clock tower there and when he'd first arrived, he'd stared at the ie reflected in the pond behind it, ti as he had an open textbook in his lap, he could sit and watch the activities, almost invisible to the students andered around in their self-absorbed trances

It ar in shorts and tank tops, skin evident everywhere He wondered if they dressed the same way for class Like them, he'd come to the campus to learn He'd visited three times in three days, but there were still too many people around; too many possible memories, and he didn't want to be remembered He debated whether tothere was no reason As far as he could tell, no one cared that he was here

He was close, so very close, but for noas i it in before finally releasing it On the ays, he saw a pair of students walking to their classes, backpacks slung over their shoulders, but at this time of day, they were outnu an early start to the weekend Here and there, students were clustered in groups of three or four, talking and sipping from water bottles he suspected were filled with alcohol, while a couple of Abercro a Frisbee back and forth, their girlfriends chatting off to the side He spotted a young , the woman's face flushed He watched as she pushed at her boyfriend, creating space between theer and the fact that unlike hi Beyond the couple, another group of students played a game of touch football with the carefree abandon of those without real responsibility

He figured that ht and toht Fraternity houses Sorority houses Bars Clubs For ht, since many classes didn't even meet on Fridays He'd been surprised when he'd first learned that; with the cost of a college education so high, he would have thought that students would have been de more time in class with their professors, not three-day weekends Then again, he supposed the schedule suited both the students and the professors Didn't everyone want things to be easy these days? To expend the least effort possible? To take shortcuts?

Yes, he thought That's exactly what students were learning here They were learning that hard decisions weren't necessary, that ht choice was unimportant, especially if it entailed extra work Why study or try to change the world on a Friday afternoon when you could be out enjoying the sun?

Shifting his eyes froaveto lead Cassie used to, he reht about the future all the time She had plans She'd mapped out her future by seventeen, but he could re tentative about the way she'd talked about it, and he'd had the sense that she didn't quite believe in herself or the face she showed to the world Why else would she have made the decisions that she had?

He'd tried to help her He'd done the right thing, followed the law, filed reports with the police, even talked to the assistant district attorney And up until that point, he'd believed in society's rules He'd held the naive view that good would triuer could be corralled, that events could be controlled Rules would keep a person safe from harm Cassie had believed that, too--after all, wasn't that what kids were taught when they were young? Why else would parents say the things they did? Look both ways before you cross the road Don't get into a car with a stranger Brush your teeth Eat your vegetables Put on your seat belt The list went on and on, rules to protect and save us

But rules could be dangerous, too, he'd learned Rules were about averages, not specifics, and since people were conditioned since childhood to accept rules, it was easy to follow them blindly To trust in the system It was easier not to worry about random possibilities It meant that people didn't have to think about potential consequences, and when the sun was shining on Friday afternoons, they could play Frisbee without a care in the world

Experience was the most painful of teachers For nearly two years, the lessons he'd learned had been all he could think about They had nearly consue She had known about the danger He had warned her ould happen And in the end, she'd cared only about following the rules, because it was convenient

Checking his watch, he saas finally tio He closed the textbook and rose fro to see if his movement had caused others to notice hi the commons, textbook beneath his arm In his pocket was a letter he'd written, and he veered toward theHe dropped the envelope through the slot and waited; a fewfrom the doors, precisely on time

He already knewperson had Facebook and Twitter and Instagram and Snapchat, their lives on display for anyone who cared to put the pieces together What they liked, who their friends were, where they spent their ti brunch at her parents' house with her sister this Sunday, and as he watched her walking ahead of hi past her shoulders, he noted again how beautiful she was There was a natural grace about her, and she drew appreciative sh lost in conversation, she didn't see with a short, heavy blonde, a friend froether; he knew she wanted to beco plans, just like Cassie used to do

He kept his distance, energized by the power he felt in her presence The power he'd been husbanding for the last two years She had no idea how close he was or what he could do She never so lanced over her shoulder, but why should she? He was no one to her, just another face in the crowd

He wondered whether she was telling the blonde about her weekend plans, rattling off places to g

o or the people she intended to see For his part, he planned to join the fauest Instead, he would watch thehborhood that was solidly middle class The house had been e lost it to foreclosure, but it was not yet up for sale Though the locks on the doors were solid, he'd been able to gain entry through aalong the side of the house without much trouble He already knew that from the master bedroom, he could see onto their back porch and into the kitchen On Sunday, he'd watch the close-knit fah and joke at the table on the porch

He knew so about each of therant success story; the newspaper article that was proudly laminated and on display at their restaurant chronicled how he'd arrived in the country illegally as a teenager without speaking a word of English and begun working as a dishwasher in a local restaurant Fifteen years later, after becoh money to open his own place in a striphis wife Car else, especially in the early years of the business Little by little, their restaurant had expanded, and it was now regarded as one of the best Mexican restaurants in the city Though there werethe restaurant's family character Both parents still worked there, and Serena waited tables three times a week, just as her older sister, Maria, once had Felix was a member of both the Chamber of Commerce and the Rotary Club, and he and his wife attended the seven am mass at St Mary's every Sunday, where he also served as a deacon Carmen was a bit more of a mystery; he knew only that she was still lish and, like her husband, was proud of the fact that Maria had becoraduate in the family

As for Maria

He hadn't yet seen her in Wilal conference, but he knew her best of all In the past, when she'd lived in Charlotte, he'd seen her many times He'd talked to her He'd tried to convince her she rong And in the end, she'd made him suffer as no one should ever suffer, and he hated her for what she'd done

When Serena waved good-bye to her friend and headed toward the parking lot, he continued walking straight There was no reason to follow her, and he was content knowing that he'd see the small but happy fauably even h frankly, both had been winners in the genetic lottery, with their dark eyes and nearly perfect bone structure He tried to iether at the table; despite the seven-year age difference, ht assume they were twins And yet they were different Where Serena was outgoing to a fault, Maria had always been quieter and driven, the more serious and studious of the two Even so, they were close, best friends as well as sisters He speculated that perhaps Serena saw traits in her sister that she wanted to emulate, and vice versa He felt a frisson of exciteht be one of the last tiether with any semblance of noran to infect their sweet happy family before the fear took hold Before their lives were slowly--and then furiously--brought to ruin

He'd come here, after all, for a purpose, and that purpose had a name

Its naeance

CHAPTER 1

Colin

Colin Hancock stood over the sink in the bathroom at the diner, his shirt raised to better exauessed that it would deepen to a dark purple by the ti the bruise made him wince, and while he knew from experience that the pain could be overridden for a while, he wondered whether it would hurt to breathe in the

His face, though

Thata problee classhtened eyes and whisper about hih he doubted that any of the the first feeeks at the university, h, but it had been clear that none of them knehat to make of him, nor had any tried to speak to hi, virtually all of theer than he was, all were female, and he suspected that as far as recent life experiences went, they had little in common with hi their own conclusions about hi about

Still, he had to adht now His left eye ollen and the white of his right eye was a bloody red There was a gash in the center of his forehead that had been glued back together, and the lead-colored bruise on his right cheekbone resembled a birthmark His split, swollen lips completed the picture What he really needed was to put an ice pack on his face as soon as possible if he wanted the girls in his classes to be able to concentrate at all But first things first; right now, he was starved and he needed fuel He hadn't eatenfast, convenient, and--if possible--not entirely unhealthy Unfortunately, at this tiht most places were already closed, so he'd ended up at a run-down diner just off the highith bars on the ater stains on the walls, peeling linoleuether with duct tape But if the place had one saving grace, it was that none of the other customers cared how he looked when he made his way to the table People who ca their own business As far as he could tell, half the people here were trying to sober up after a night of hard drinking, while the other half--designated drivers, no doubt--were sobering up, too, only inally less intoxicated

It was the kind of place where it would have been easy to get in trouble, and after he'd turned into the gravel lot with Evan following in his Prius, he'd half expected Evan to keep going But Evanabout possible trouble It was the only reason he'd ever set foot in an establishht Evan didn't exactly blend in with the late-evening crowd here, ith his pink shirt, argyle socks, leather loafers, and neatly parted sandy blond hair In fact, his Prius oal was to get beaten up by the good old boys in pickup trucks who'd just spentwasted

Colin turned on the faucet and wet his hands before bringing them to his face The water was cold, exactly what he wanted His skin felt like it was on fire The ht had hit a lot harder than he'd expected--and that didn't count the illegal blows--but ould have known by looking at hioofy eyebrows He shouldn't have underestiuy, and he told hiain Either that, or he'd end up scaring his classe experience for theuy in my class with bruises all over his face and these crazy tattoos, Mo on the phone And I have to sit right next to him!

He shook the water fro the restroom, he spotted Evan in the corner booth Unlike hie He still had a baby face, and as he approached, Colin wondered how many times a week he even had to shave

"That took you long enough," Evan said as Colin slid into the booth "I ondering if you got lost"

Colin slouched against the vinyl cushion "I hope you weren't too nervous all alone out here"

"Ha, ha"

"I have a question for you"

"Go ahead"