Maybe it was only grief, after all, bubbling to the surface in all its ugly trappings—grief like a gaping wound for a daughter who is gone and likely not coming home again.

I’m looking down on the estate from above, and then I’m on the balcony, sitting all the way at the edge, legs pressed through the wooden rails and dangling down, down in the night. Inthe dream, the height doesn’t scare me at all. My fingers dance across the top of the railing like it’s a set of piano keys.

There are no parents, no lawyers. The girl’s father is unreachable, has been unreachable for years.

In the dream, the height doesn't scare me at all. My fingers dance across the top of the railing like it's a set of piano keys.

Aster Spanos: Maybe she has a whole new life, somewhere amazing. Like, Buenos Aires or Monte Carlo. Don’t get me wrong, I’d give her hell for doing this to us if she ever comes home. But consider the alternatives. If she didn’t run away...

In that moment, his expression changes, geniality sliding away into something between awe and dread.“Zoe?” he splutters.

I used to be thankful she was too out of it to care when the school complained about my spotty attendance record. When the cops brought me home from partying, again. When I'd pocket a few pills for Kaylee and Starr and me. Until I kind of started wanting her to care.

Martina Green: Today is Tuesday, February eleventh, and Zoe Spanos has been missing for six weeks to the day. Last Friday, the Herron Mills Village PD declared Zoe a runaway, and that’s why I’m here, talking to you. Because if you know Zoe, you know she didn’t run away. Zoe Spanos is missing. And we’re missing Zoe

There are no parents, no lawyers. The girl’s father is unreachable, has been unreachable for years. Someone called the girl’s mother, but not until after Anna places herself at the scene where the body was found.

But there are some secrets—my secrets—that Windermere will hold forever, trapped beneath the ash like spilled blood.