Tanya pushed back from the counter.
“Phoebe, wait.”
“Wait for what?” Phoebe demanded. “Olivia has blamed herself for twenty years.”
My heartbeat became painfully loud.
“Where was Teresa when you last saw her?”
Neither answered.
I gripped the chair.
“Was she inside the car?”
Phoebe covered her mouth.
Her answer came through her fingers.
“No.”
My knees weakened.
I sat down before they gave way.
“Where was she?”
Tanya’s face folded.
“On the bank.”
“With you?”
She nodded.
The entire story I had lived with for twenty years shifted.
“She got out?”
“Yes,” Phoebe whispered.
“Then how did she disappear?”
Tanya pressed both hands against the counter.
“When the car first went through the barrier, it rolled onto its side.”
She swallowed.
“The passenger window shattered. Teresa and I climbed out.”
“What about Phoebe?”
“I was trapped in the back seat,” Phoebe said. “The seat belt would not release, and the front seat had collapsed against my leg.”
“Water was coming through the windows,” Tanya continued. “I shouted that emergency crews were coming.”
“But they were not close enough,” Phoebe said.
I looked at them.
“Teresa heard you.”
Phoebe nodded.
“Tanya grabbed her.”
“I held her wrist,” Tanya said. “I told her not to go back.”
“What did Teresa say?”
Tanya began crying.
“She said, ‘Phoebe doesn’t have time.’”
The words broke something open inside me.
“She climbed down the bank,” Phoebe continued. “She reached through the broken window.”
Her voice shook.
“She used a piece of metal to cut the belt.”
I pressed one hand against my mouth.
“She pulled my leg free and pushed me through the window.”
“Tanya dragged Phoebe toward the bank,” Holly said quietly.
“You knew?” I asked.
Holly shook her head violently.
“Not until much later.”
Phoebe continued.
“I looked back.”
Tears ran down her face.
“Teresa was still inside.”
“And then?”
Tanya’s voice thinned.
“Another surge came through the ravine. The car shifted before she could climb out.”
I stared at my letter.
For twenty years, I had pictured Teresa trapped in darkness.
Crying.
Calling for me.
Waiting for rescue.
But she had escaped.
She had been safe.
Then she had chosen to go back.
“Why did no one tell me?”
Tanya looked away.
That was enough.
“We told Sheriff Kahn that night,” Phoebe said. “He said he would speak to you.”
