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She dropped her phone back into the console and redirected toward the park. She had time to get there and set up beforeJayden and his mom arrived, but it would be close. Good thing she kept her camera bag with her and wasn’t still stuck at home without her car.

Resting her foot a bit heavily on the gas pedal, she grabbed another tissue and dabbed under her eyes again. Crying hadn’t helped anything, and she’d probably have puffy eyes for the photo shoot. At least she’d be behind the camera, not in front of it. Still, she turned on the air conditioning and aimed the vents at her face.

Her thoughts returned to last night’s incident. Maybe if she wrote out what happened, something would click. At the very least, she needed to have a written record of her own in case she started to forget. She’d work on that tonight—whether she felt like it or not.

That settled, she forced her brain into photography mode. She had an appointment to keep and a senior to celebrate. This was a special time in a teen’s life, and she needed to make sure the photos reflected that. She’d do that even if she weren’t being paid, but she did need the money.

After the last two weddings she shot had not only drained her but left her barely able to function for several days following, she’d been afraid to book more for the foreseeable future. That had seriously cut into her income as a freelance photographer. These less-demanding senior photo sessions for the local high schoolers, though not nearly as lucrative, were keeping her afloat right now. At least until more of the medical bills started coming in. But she’d cross that bridge when she came to it.

As she neared the turnoff for Kincaid Lake State Park, her phone went off. Her cousin Hailey. She hit the accept button on her steering wheel and waited for the call to connect through her car speakers.

“Hello.”

“Hey, Allye. How are you feeling? Wesley told me you had a bad fall last night.”

She let a beat of silence pass. “How did Wesley know?”

“Mayor Jennings told him. He seemed pretty concerned.”

“Oh.” Of course. Hailey’s husband, Wesley, was on the city council and had been working closely with Mayor Jennings’s campaign for state senator. If he won his race, she strongly suspected he intended to endorse Wesley as the new mayoral candidate to replace him.

“So . . . how are you?”

Allye shifted to ease a pinch in her right shoulder. “I’m okay, I guess. A few bruises and incredibly sore. I didn’t fall though—at least, I don’t think I did, but everyone else seems to.”

Other than the clack-clack of a baby toy in the background, there was silence on the other end of the line. After a few seconds, Hailey said, “I’d think you’d be the first person to know if you fell.”

“You’d think.” She turned onto the road leading to the park. “At this point, I don’t know what happened last night. Mayor Jennings thinks I fell, I thought I was attacked, none of it adds up.”

“Hold up. Youthoughtyou wereattacked? What happened?”

She drew in a deep breath, then let it out quickly, annoyed that it had made her a bit dizzy. What was she about to say? She blinked twice, then remembered Hailey’s question.Focus.“When I left my studio last night, I thought I heard something behind the building.” She pulled into the lot and parked as she gave Hailey the basics up to the point where the mayor dropped her off at home. “None of it adds up. No one thinks I actually saw anything last night, and I know it sounds crazy, but it’s so clear in my mind. Well, as clear as anything is lately.”

“What’s that supposed to mean?”

She hadn’t intended to let that last part slip. “Nothing.”

“Not nothing, Allye Jessup.”

“Really, Hailey—”

“Spill it. What’s going on?”

“I don’t know.” She let the whispered words trail off, but Haileyremained quiet, waiting. “I’ve been ... sick, I guess, for a couple months now. I’ve got awful brain fog, and I’m exhausted. All the time. The migraines are hitting more often, and I get dizzy...” She stopped herself before she said too much. “There’s other symptoms too, but the doctors don’t know what’s going on yet.”

“Allye, I’m so sorry.”

“It’s okay—I’m okay. Or I will be. Or I won’t.” She managed a nervous-sounding laugh. “But if I’m wrong about what happened last night...” She bit the side of her lip and blinked back tears.

“If you’re wrong about last night, what?”

She squeezed her eyes shut. Did she really want to say it out loud?

“Allye.”

The gentle way Hailey said her name broke down the wall, and she blurted out her fears. “My injuries from last night don’t fit with me falling down the stairs, but my memory doesn’t match the evidence. What if I’m starting to hallucinate? What if I imagined everything, then fainted at the foot of the steps? I’ve got bruises on my neck. Did I choke myself? My body’s betraying me—maybe my mind is too.” She sucked in a breath, then added softly, “I’m afraid.”

“I’m so sorry.” Her cousin didn’t offer empty feel-good platitudes—wasn’t her way. And Allye was thankful for that. “If there’s anything I can do to help, drive you to appointments, anything—”