“This was when you started to change. After Izzy died.
You were never the same after that,” Trinity observed. “At the time, I hated you for it. I felt like you thought you were better than us, like you were special somehow since your sister died.” Trinity looked up at me, her blue eyes sincere and ful of regret. “That’s the first day that you were better than us. I just didn’t know it.”
I had no idea what to say to that, so I said nothing. I simply watched as Trinity looked back down at the album and turned the page. Upside down, I could see a picture of Summer, smiling widely as she stood beside Trinity posing for the photo. Trinity gently brushed her fingers over the image.
“Summer was good like that before I turned her into a monster. I drained her of compassion. I fed off it like an animal. Little by little, I could see her changing, but I just didn’t care,” she said with a bitter laugh. “My entire life, al I’ve ever cared about is myself. And my grandmother. She was the only other person I truly gave a crap about and she died because of it.”
Trinity flipped the album’s cover shut. It closed with a thud of finality. She laid it on the bed beside her and then rubbed her palms on her jeans. After a long pause, she raised her eyes to me.
“I wish she’d kil ed me that night,” Trinity final y said, her voice trembling with emotion. “I don’t want to live like this anymore, Ridley.”
Understandably skeptical, I stood motionlessly in the doorway, examining Trinity. I looked closely for signs of subterfuge, for signs of the evil I knew her to be capable of.
But rather than finding indications of either, I saw a girl I’d known most of my life trying to come to terms with the consequences of her actions. I saw Trinity overwhelmed by guilt.
She real y looked terrible, but not in a way that others might recognize. Her long blonde hair was freshly brushed and neatly wound at the nape of her neck. Her skin was clean, as were her nails. Her clothes were spotless and fashionable. In fact, her outfit was something I might’ve seen her wear before both of our lives were turned upside down.
No, the change wasn’t something that a stranger could see. But, nonetheless, it was there and I was beginning to think it just might be sincere.
“Why are you here, Trinity?”
“I wanted you to know that I’m leaving. I just wanted to talk to you first, to apologize.” She paused to swal ow back tears I could hear in her voice. “I’m so sorry, Ridley. For everything.”
“Wel , now you’ve apologized so I think—”
“And there’s something else,” she quickly interrupted. “I think Savannah’s involved in al this somehow.”
For the first time since arriving, I felt like I was seeing a little bit of the old Trinity—the grand manipulator, the vicious, spiteful girl I’d always known. That had to be it, because there was no way Savannah was involved. No way.
“Don’t even try it, Trinity. Savannah isn’t involved in any of this. You’re just jealous because—”
“But I’m not,” Trinity said, coming to her feet and walking to me. When she reached out to put her hands on my arms, I flinched, backing away from her. She jerked her fingers back, her expression crestfal en. “Okay, I deserved that, but I’m tel ing you the truth, Ridley. This has nothing to do with Devon. If I stil wanted him, I wouldn’t have let him go.”
“You let Devon go?”
“Yes, even though I knew he’d go straight to Savannah. I realized that I just couldn’t go on like this anymore. I can’t live with myself, with al that I’ve done. I thought bringing this to you, helping you in some way, might make it so that you could forgive me.”
She seemed so desperate for me to believe her that it made it hard not to. Desperation in any form was so unlike Trinity, it was difficult to doubt her sincerity.
“Why do you think Savannah is involved?”
“I actual y found out when I went looking for Devon. I knew he’d be somewhere close to her. He can’t stay away from her for very long, so I went by her house one night, hoping to find him. I saw the shimmer of a vampire leaving through her window and I thought it was him so I fol owed.
“I trailed him into the woods where he met up with a man and a little girl. The man fed him from his wrist, but when his form started to come back I saw that it wasn’t Devon at al . It was a woman.”
Trinity watched me, as if waiting for me to look shocked or surprised. I was neither.
“Did she have red hair?”
Trinity frowned. “Yes. How did you know?”
“That was Heather, Savannah’s mother. Savannah doesn’t know that she’s a vampire. She thinks she drowned a few years ago and that she’s seeing her ghost.”
“How can she see anything?”
I shrugged.
“I don’t know, but she can. She can see Devon, too. I don’t know what it is about us, but when we’re transparent, she can see us.”
Trinity took a step back.
“Us?”
“Oh, yeah. Heather infected me.”
Trinity sniffed.
“I thought you smel ed a little different.”
“That’s because I am. Did you real y think I’d come here to meet a vampire alone? Do you real y think I’m that stupid?”
It was Trinity’s turn to shrug.
“I figured because it was your mom that…”
“Where is she, by the way?”
“She’s stil at O’Mal ey’s. She’s already three sheets to the wind. It wasn’t very difficult to get her phone and her keys. At the very least, I thought I might save some innocent person from being run over by your drunk-driving mother.”
Relief washed through me, even though my initial fear had already dissipated somewhat since seeing Trinity in this condition.
“I knew you’d come for her, though. That’s why I did it this way. You real y are a good person, Ridley. I’ve never told you that because I never real y cared. But you are and I hope one day you can forgive me.”
I could feel the emotion of the Hallmark Moment chiseling away at the ice around my heart, but I wasn’t quite ready to go al in and say that everything was forgiven.
“Where are you planning to go?”
Trinity shook her head.
“I don’t even know. I just know I need to get out of here.