most sense, but because she couldn’t bear not being able to
save Emily from a world Dani knew could be beyond cruel.
Chapter 19
Emily
The kitchen was strewn with mixing bowls and measuring
cups. Emily had thought baking a batch of chocolate chip
cookies would be easy. She’d had success with the chicken
casserole, so how much harder could baking be? She’d
checked the cupboards and the small pantry before she started
to make sure that she had everything. Halfway through, Emily
found out that mixing batter was hard. Her hand hurt, there
was flour everywhere, sugar spilled on the floor, and she’d
accidentally dropped an egg into the sink and hadn’t cleaned it
up yet.
She hurried to finish, hoping she could get done before Dani
was back. The night before, she’d acted…strange. She didn’t
know her all that well, but she could tell something wasn’t
right. Emily had gotten home from class later than normal,
figuring Dani would already be back, but she wasn’t. When
she did come in, she said she wasn’t feeling well. She’d
claimed she had a headache, but she hadn’t taken anything for
it that Emily saw.
Dani locked herself in the bathroom for a shower, then came
out and went right to her room. She’d closed the door and she
hadn’t come out, not even to eat anything. Emily spent the
night on the couch, feeling cold even though it was fairly
warm in the place, and lonelier than she’d been in a long time.
She’d wanted to corner Dani before she left for work, but
she was already gone when Emily woke up.
It had bothered Emily all day. She’d hardly been able to