Deb nods vigorously. She had just called to report that he Wait, who called? Quincy asks, confused.

Fiona. Long story short, shes alive.

Jesus. Long story short? He snorts. Are you kidding me? What happened?

Do you really want me to get into the details now? At his look, she elaborates, Her twin was the one who was killedshe had shown up at Fitzgeralds place to surprise her for their birthday and Hagan mistook her for her sister.

Quincys mind is racing. So it was Hagan? We never even looked his way.

Why would we? Cla.s.sic psychopath, from what I can tell. The guy oozed charmand he manipulated the h.e.l.l out of everyone who crossed his path.

So Fiona Fitzgerald is alive? Quincy reiterates, stuck on that. Youre sure?

Positive. And so is Brynn. Our guys surrounded the house, got up to the back deck of her house, saw what was going on, and shot Hagan through the kitchen window. Hes in critical, but they think h.e.l.l pull through so well at least get some answers.

Quincy nods, for now, his concern on the real victim here. So Brynn is fine, then?

Deb hesitates.

His stomach turns over. You dont look so sure.

Hagan didnt hurt her, but Quincy, she was pregnant.

Was?He curses under his breath. Had he known about that They took her to the hospital, Deb tells him. I think shes in trouble.

Brynn Are you awake?

No.

Shes asleep.

And she wants to stay that way. It cant be morning yet. Shes so exhausted Brynn, come on, wake up.

She opens her eyes reluctantly and sees Garth. Just a few more Wait a minute.

She isnt at home in bed, and it isnt morning, its Fragments flash back into her mind: the cabin, Pat, the knife, theknife The baby! she wails, trying to sit up, realizing shes in a hospital bed, hooked up to an IV. A blinding pain in her head stops her and she sinks back against the pillow with an anguished sob.

Its okay, Garth leans in to stroke her cheek with the back of his hand. You were spotting, the doctor said, probably from stressbut youre still pregnant.

Still pregnant.

Garth knows.

He knows, and Hes smiling at her.

Are you sure the baby is They did a sonogram. You were probably too out of it from the concussion to remember, but they got a strong heartbeat. The baby is fine. And you will be, too.We will be fine.

She realizes what he means and, in a flood of relief, that hes right.

It was an accident, Garth. The baby. I swear I didnt I know.

You do?

It doesnt matter how it happened. He shrugs. I had no idea how much I wanted this baby until I found out it might not make it. Ive never prayed so hard in my life.

How did you find out?

He hesitates. The police told me. I called from the Cape to make sure you were still okay up at that cabin, and they told me what had happened, and that you had been taken to the hospital.

Garth, it wasnt Rachel, she says, needing him to know. It was Hagan. Shh, I know. Dont even think about him right now. Its over.

She closes her eyes, trying to shut out the image of Pats menacing face.

No, think of something else. Something pleasant.

What about the boys? she asks, smiling faintly. How are they?

Theyre fine. Theyre with your father and Sue, probably eating junk and playing Candyland.

Brynn manages a weary smile. Thats good. I have so much to tell you, Garth.

I have some things to tell you, too. But therell be plenty of time for talking later. And for visitors, too. Theres someone waiting to see you.

Yes, she thinks, closing her eyes contentedly.

There will be plenty of time for everything.

After all that worrying about how he was going to react Hes still here.

And he wants this baby as much as she does.

Brynn drifts off into a pleasant dream in which Fiona is alive again, holding her hand and telling her that everythings going to be okay from now on.

EPILOGUE.

Happy Birthday to you Happy Birthday to you Happy Birthday, dear Brynn Happy Birthday to you.

The song ends with a chorus of cheers, and Jeremy urging, Make a wish before you blow them out, Mommy!

Brynn nods, looking at the concentric circles of flickering candles on the bakery cake. There are thirty-two. One for every year of her life, plus an extra for luck.

Luck.

Shes had more than her share of that in her life.

More than her share of wishes come true, as well.

But theres always room for another.

She closes her eyes and makes one.

Then she opens her eyes and blows out the candles with as much breath as she can muster.

Standing on either side of her, Jeremy and Caleb puff their cheeks and exhale noisily.

We got them all, Mom! Caleb announces. Your wish is going to come true!

Say cheese, guys, Sue calls from the opposite side of the table where shes standing beside Brynns father, aiming a camera at them.

Brynn pulls her sons close and smiles as her stepmother clicks and the bulb flashes.

One more. Garth, get in there with Marie.

Brynn turns to see her husband stepping in with their five-month-old daughter proudly held in the crook of his arm.

Little Marie looks strikingly like her daddy. People say that all the time. But Brynn knows he would dote on her regardless of that. By the time she was born last May, you would think the whole pregnancy had been his idea. It seems so very long ago that Brynn worried he might leave her over it. Long ago, and ludicrous.

Weve come a long way since then,she thinks, watching Sue take aim through the camera lens.All of us.

This milestone year taught Brynn how to let go. How to move on. And, most importantly, how to forgivenot just Garth, but Sue. And Fee. Even Tildy.

But not Patrick Hagan.

Perhaps she can forgive him for what he did to her, but not for the lives he took.

Ashleys might have been destroyed completely, if not for the twist of fate that saved her mother.

That weekend, Fiona had been picked up by Sharon and whisked to the safety of her home near Albany, where she planned to lay low until it was safe to return.

Tragically, her sister Deirdre, getting over the breakup with her girlfriend, had come to surprise her for their birthday and let herself into the house.

It was she, and not Fee, who was killed that night. Brynn realized it at the funeral when she saw Fiona trying to mask her left-handedness and when her hair fell back into its natural part on the right.

Fiona was understandably stunned when she heard the news of her own deathand devastated that her beloved sister had died in her place.

I had to pretend I was Deirdre, she told Brynn tearfully when they were reunited at the hospital. I had no choice; it was the only way I could stay alive for Ashley.

Ashley.

Brynn turns her head and spots her, absently toying with a paper cup filled with Pepsi.

Fionas daughter has suffered through this past year of loss, but the child psychiatrist shes been seeing believes sh.e.l.l come through it relatively intact. Its just going to take a lot of time to work through the euphoria of having her mother seemingly come back to life, the grief for her lost auntand a whole gamut of emotion for her father.

There was never any question that Pat loved his daughter. But that love was tainted by festering fury over what might have been. He even jeopardized Ashleys safety to carry out his plans. He confessed to drugging her with a stolen prescription sedative before bed on the night he intended to murder her mother, and waking her on the pretext of taking her on a sunrise hike. He got her to take more of the tranquilizer by lacing a beverage can that supposedly contained Red Bull. Chillingly, she was unconscious in the Jeep, parked in an empty lot around the corner from her own home while her father was inside attacking Deirdre Fitzgerald.

In Pats twisted mind, it was justified.

Everything about his life had been a failure: his law career, his marriage, his finances. The only redeeming thing he had was Ashley. But as time went on and he reflected on the past, he came to believe that he should have had three children, not one. That he had been cheated.

When he stumbled across the evidence that his ex-wife had terminated a second pregnancy, it was too much for him. He descended into a private world of hatred and delusion, consumed by the need to punish not just Fiona, but the other three girls who had been there the night pregnant Rachel fell to her death.

Poor Rachel.

When Brynn was finally able to piece it all together with Isaac, she learned that in the summer before Rachels death, her troubled friend had been involved not just with Pat, but with her stepbrother as well.

Isaac said she had suffered terrible guilt over their clandestine relationship. They werent blood siblings, but in Rachels mind, he was her brother, and it was wrong.

I never felt that way, though, he confessed. I was crazy in love with her. To me, it felt right.

Finding out she was pregnant by either him or Pat was too much for Rachel to bear. She must have been drinking so much in an effort to numb her pain that night, or perhaps she was hoping to miscarry the baby.

Some questions will never be answered.

Others have been, thanks to forensics.

Pat led the authorities to the spot where he buried Rachel that terrible night, deep in the forest above Cedar Crest. From what was left of her determined that she had died when she fell from the rock, and she was, indeed, pregnant with Isaacs child.

Her stepbrother took that news perhaps a little harder than he took the confirmation of her death. He told Brynn that in his heart, he had already come to realize she was gone. Still, it was upsetting to learn that he hadnt just lost Rachel, but his child as well.

Ill learn to live with that, too, though, he said optimistically, and Brynn agreed.

You can learn to live with just about anything.

Isaac sent Brynn a birthday card yesterday. It was postmarked in Hawaii, where hes vacationing with his girlfriend, Kylah.

I know this might be a tough birthday for you,he wrote,but stay strong and count your blessings.

Quincy Hiles sent a card, too. His came from Florida, where he lives now. A man of few words, he merely signed his name. But Brynn was touched nonetheless by the gesture.

She still speaks to the retired detective from time to time. He likes to call and check in with her and Fiona, grateful that they, at least, escaped with their lives.

Unlike Deirdre.

Tildy.

And Ca.s.sie.

She was discovered, dead, somewhere up in Maine. Brynn didnt ask for details, but she a.s.sumes Pat staged a birthday party scenario for her as well, because Quincy did mention that he left behind a wrapped gift box.

In it was Rachels drivers license, which he had pulled from her pocket the night she died. He had left Fiona a lock of Rachels hair, and Tildy a piece of the sorority sweater Rachel had been wearing.

In the gift box he intended for Brynn was a silver sorority bracelet that bore the initialsR.L.