Sister Dear Read Online Free PDF

dinner—maybe tomorrow or the next night? To celebrate.” Emma brightened and then hesitated.
    “Sure.” Allie couldn’t think about dinner. Or eating. Or later this week.
    She was home.
    Her parents would be here soon. With or without her daughter.
    Allie closed the car door, backed away, and waved. Make sure Caroline knows. She wanted to call out the words, making them echo down the street. Make sure she knows I’m home.
    But all that Allie could hear and see was Caroline’s anguish the day she’d received her verdict. Her daughter’s face crumpling. The tears. And the promise she’d made Caroline.
    January 2007
    As the jury foreman announced the decision, Allie went numb.
    Guilty.
    Allie imagined herself slipping into a coma, unable to move or protect herself from harm. Unable to cry or beg for mercy.
    Behind Allie, her mother gasped and cried out while her father murmured words of comfort. Caroline began to sob.
    On the opposite side of the courtroom, speculation rattled through the aisles. The courtroom doors opened as people raced out with the news. One of Allie’s lawyers patted her hand. “We’ll appeal it,” he said.
    The judge banged his gavel. “Quiet!” he demanded. Sentencing would take place the following week. The rest of his directives were lost to Allie.
    She felt a touch on her forearm. Her parents stood so close their bodies seemed melded together. Her mother cried openly, her face awash with grief. Her father’s shoulders sagged, his eyes dulled with pain and disbelief.
    On either side of Allie, officers took her by the elbows and pulled her to her feet. She wobbled like a newborn calf, legs shaking, hands trembling.
    An anguished cry pierced the air. Caroline.
    Allie turned. Her daughter wrestled her way out of Emma’s grasp and ran up the center aisle. Her dark hair flew out like a cape behind her. She was calling, “Mommy!”
    With the force of a comet hitting the earth, Caroline launched herself at Allie, throwing her thin arms around her waist, pressing her head to her mother’s chest.
    “Don’t leave me,” Caroline shrieked. “Come home, Mommy. Home. I’ll do anything.”
    Officers moved in to pull her away. She flicked a desperate glance in their direction. “Please. One minute,” she pleaded. Miraculously, the uniformed men stepped back.
    “Caroline, sweetheart.” Allie knelt down eye level with Caroline. “I want to come home. More than anything. Don’t you believe me?”
    Her daughter’s crying slowed to hiccupping sobs.
    “I am going to do my best to get back to you,” Allie murmured. “As soon as I can.”
    Caroline eased back to look at Allie’s face. She glanced up at her grandparents, then to Emma. “They’re saying bad things. They say you did bad things.”
    Allie felt her heart collapse in on itself, the chambers deflating, the arteries bursting. The only thing more agonizing than leaving Caroline was disappointing her.
    “It’s not true. We’re going to find out who really did this.”
    “Miss Marshall.” One of the officers nudged Allie’s arm and motioned for the door. “It’s time.” He stepped closer, ready to move Allie back to her holding cell.
    Caroline stood motionless, her body slack and lifeless.
    Allie grasped at the remaining seconds. She needed time to stop, for the earth to quit rotating. “I love you. No matter what—you’re in my heart.” Allie held her daughter’s gaze.
    “P-promise?” Caroline asked, choking back a sob.
    “I promise.”
    2016
    Allie wiped a tear from her eye with the bottom of one sleeve. It was the first day of her new life, and she was determined to make the most of it, starting with this moment.
    With a deep, cleansing breath, Allie straightened her shoulders and walked toward the house. She examined the exterior of the little cottage her parents had picked out. It was small and tidy, unobtrusive, painted gray with white trim. The house was flanked with trees of all shapes and sizes—hickory,