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Haley is back where she belongs, I’ll be out of here. We’ll never have to see each other again.”
    He hung up and threw the phone across the floor.
     

Chapter Twelve
    Haley
     
    It was still dark when I woke up. For the first time since arriving at the ranch three days ago, I hadn’t woken up in the middle of the night with a racing heart. This time the darkness was thick and comforting, like a warm blanket wrapped tightly around my body, and I allowed its warmth to sink deep into my skin. The rush of euphoria left behind by my dream trickled into my veins. The last time I’d dreamed of my sister, Liz, had been on my wedding night. She looked the way she had the last time I’d seen her, wearing her pink swim suit with frills around the waist. Tonight I recognized her, though she was older, with long, flowing blonde hair and a soft oval face. She resembled my mother so much, for a moment I thought I had mixed them up. But a strong nudge within told me it was Liz. Her presence completely enveloped me.
    It had happened so fast. One moment I was sitting on the beach, gazing out at sea with my arms wrapped around me, listening to the waves crashing against the sand. Then I blinked and there she was, wearing a bright white dress that glowed in the night. A lamp in the darkness. I leapt to my feet and stumbled toward the water, wanting desperately to get near her. But each time I got close, she disappeared as if into thin air and then reappeared again out of my reach, riding the waves.
    I waded into the icy, inky water until it reached my waist. I swam and swam until the muscles in my arms screamed with pain. I finally stopped, gasping for air, spitting salty water out of my mouth. I watched her watching me, wishing she would come to me. But she just stared at me. She was so far and at the same time so near, her face as clear as if she were only a breath away. I watched a glistening tear roll down her cheek. Then she smiled suddenly, her face erased of its earlier sadness. I felt her reach out and touch my heart. Comfort reaching out to me from a distance.
    My lips curled into a smile that radiated warmth from my lips to my heart.
    Liz’s lips parted and moved. She was saying something, but I couldn’t hear the words. I strained my ears but only the sounds of the waves reached them.
    “What are you saying?” I asked over the sound of the water swirling around me.
    Her lips kept on moving, but still the words didn’t reach me. I lunged forward into the water again to swim to her, but she lifted her hand, waved, and faded into nothingness.
    The feeling she left with me, of being loved and protected, accompanied me into the waking world.
    It was 3 a.m.—still a bit too early to get up—so I decided to read one of the romance novels Grace had brought me yesterday. A few pages in I decided it was a bit too racy for me. Plus, romance was really the last thing on my mind. Unable to go back to sleep, I went downstairs for a glass of water.
    I plopped down at the kitchen table and sipped my water, thinking of my sister. I allowed myself to believe she was my guardian angel, watching over me in the darkest moments of my life. I placed the glass on the table. “I’ll be fine,” I said aloud. “Jude will not win. I’ll get through this.”
    A sudden prickling burned my skin, and I could have sworn there was a chill in the room, even though both the back door and the windows were closed. My paranoia had caused me to check them as soon as I got into the kitchen.
    I wrapped both my hands around the cool glass of water and started to relax, and then I saw movement on the other side of the window. I told myself it was just the branches on the nearby trees. Only it wasn’t. My heart clenched and I clutched my throat, struggling to breathe. I couldn’t breathe.
    The image became clearer and I gazed into his eyes. Jude’s eyes. He gave me that barely there smile and I tried to move, to stand, to run, but fear paralyzed me.
    His