Sara Shepard - Burned

“What’s that?” Hanna asked.

Naomi tucked a windswept piece of hair behind her ear. “Ali called me up once, after she came back to Rosewood as Courtney. She told me everything. That she was the real Ali, but she’d been imprisoned in the hospital at the beginning of sixth grade because of this fluke switch, and that it was sort of your fault it happened.”

Hanna’s eyes widened. “Did you tell anyone?”

Naomi shook her head. “I thought she was drunk—the story was so crazy. And she kept saying, ‘I hate them, Naomi. They ruined my life. They ruined yours, too, don’t you think? Don’t they owe you something?’”

“ Do you think that?” Hanna asked.

Naomi shrugged. “It was cool to be Ali’s friend, and I was really pissed when she dropped Riley and me for you guys. But as time went on, I started to think it was a good thing. Ali was really bossy. And she kept a lot of secrets.”

“Like what?”

Naomi gave Hanna a crazy look. “Maybe that she had a twin sister no one knew about?” Then she cleared her throat. “She said something else on the phone to me last year, though. She said, ‘I’m going to get those bitches, Naomi. We’re going to make them pay for what they did.’”

“God,” Hanna whispered. Ali had made them pay.

Then she looked at Naomi. “I wish you would have said something earlier. I wish you would have told someone .” If Naomi had taken Ali more seriously, the girls might not have gone through that horrible ordeal in the Poconos. If Real Ali had gotten sent back to The Preserve—because surely she would have, if someone had known to believe her—Jamaica wouldn’t have happened, either. Tabitha would’ve just been a weird friend of Ali’s from The Preserve who acted strangely on Ali’s behalf, nothing more.

Hanna pictured time rewinding, every horrible thing they’d done turning to dust. What sort of life would she be living now? How happy would she be, how carefree? How amazing would it be if A wasn’t in her life?

A clever, vindictive look crossed Naomi’s face, reminding Hanna more of the girl she’d known for years, the girl who’d always been her enemy. “I guess that makes us even.”

The lobby of the Royal Arms Hotel was done up in beige and brown tones and filled with generic furniture and ugly brass light fixtures, making Spencer feel like she was at a hotel near the Philadelphia Airport instead of on the shores of Hamilton, Bermuda. The only thing special about the lobby was that it was jam-packed with kids evacuated from the cruise ship. Boys from Pritchard sat on couches. A bunch of kids from Rosewood Day swarmed the little restaurant, where three televisions were all tuned to cricket matches. Girls from Villa Louisa leaned against the front desk, talking to their parents on their cell phones. Everyone had gotten calls from their parents, who were furious that their children had had to flee for their lives on lifeboats. Rumors swirled about lawsuits against the cruise company. Mason Byers announced that his dad was taking a private plane to Bermuda that night and getting him the hell out of there. The story had even hit the news already—THE BERMUDA TRIANGLE, a headline had read earlier on a news program before cricket, followed by footage of dozens of tiny lifeboats sailing away from the burning ship. Unfortunately, the story about the girls’ brush with death got some airplay, too—reporters practically salivated once they realized they were the Pretty Little Liars. Spencer had found out through the news that the authorities were still trying to figure out what had caused the explosion in the boiler room.

“Okay, everyone!” Jeremy shouted into a megaphone, still doing his best to remain chipper. “We’ve got the fire out on the boat, but it isn’t safe for travel, so we’re booking you plane tickets. You’ll leave either tomorrow or the next day. We’re trying to get you all rooms here, so no one go anywhere. Otherwise you’ll be stranded in Bermuda until your parents can come and get you.”

“As if that’s a bad thing?” Spencer murmured, rolling her eyes. She stood with her friends in a back hallway near a couple of computer terminals and vending machines, watching the chaos from afar. None of them had quite recovered from their time in the cold water—they all still had towels slung over their shoulders and goose bumps on their arms. Their hair had partially dried, but Aria had seaweed twisted in her bangs. Emily cupped a mug of hot chocolate in her hands, and Hanna was still shivering. But maybe that was because she’d just announced that Naomi wasn’t A.

“She didn’t know what I did to Madison,” Hanna went on after Jeremy finished his announcement. “And, I mean, she organized a rescue team for us. It’s pretty obvious the real A sent us down the wrong path again.”

Spencer nodded, not really surprised. As soon as Naomi had arrived with a rescue team in tow, she’d begun to doubt their suspicions. But it was incredible how expertly A had made it look like Naomi was the one after them. Sending them notes when Naomi was around, for one. Organizing Hanna and Naomi to room together, for another.

She shut her eyes. “But A was on the boat. And A did deflate our life raft—right?”

Aria nodded. “It’s too much of a coincidence. A definitely did it. So that leaves Graham. Maybe he’s the one and only A.”

“But I don’t understand how Graham could have followed us to the cove without us seeing him,” Emily said, looking puzzled. “We were on open water. And he must have acted quickly—we weren’t in that cove for very long.”

“Maybe he overheard us talking about going to the cove and headed out there first,” Hanna suggested. “Or he could have already been there when we arrived, hiding in one of the caves.”

Aria squinted. “I don’t know if he could have gotten out there that fast after the explosion. But I guess anything is possible.”

Spencer twisted her silver ring around her finger. “Graham probably spied on all of our conversations in the common room. And just because Naomi wasn’t around, we thought we were safe.”

“Has anyone seen Graham?” Hanna whispered. “He could be listening right now.”

Everyone looked up. Spencer scanned the crowd in the lobby. Jennifer Feldman was tapping on her iPad by the check-in desk. Lucas Beattie was roving around the lobby, taking pictures for yearbook. She didn’t see Graham anywhere.

“I wonder what his next move is,” she said uneasily. “Do you think he’s going to tell as soon as we get to back to the States?”

Aria squared her shoulders. “I think we should confess instead of letting Graham turn us in.”

Confess . Spencer took a deep breath. Hanna and Emily shifted uncomfortably. It was obvious they were all contemplating the promise they’d made in the water.

Emily picked at her cuticles. “I’m so afraid of what’s going to happen when we tell.”

“We have to end this,” Aria said. “Out there in the water, I had this epiphany. I’d rather clear my conscience than live a lie. Even if that means suffering for it, I don’t think I can live another day with this hanging over me.”

Spencer nodded. “I feel that way, too. But you’re underestimating it when you say suffer , Aria. We could spend years in court. We could go to jail for the rest of our lives.”

“A could torment us for the rest of our lives, too,” Aria said.

“But we’ll never get to see our families again,” Hanna said. “Everyone we love will hate us.”

Tears filled Aria’s eyes. “I know. But like I said, I can confess for everyone, and—”