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I shook my head. None of this could be real. Corrine lay at my feet, bleeding from her nose. She looked pale, her body twisted at a wrong angle. He killed her. She would have killed me.

Lock took a step backward and leaned against the wall. He had trouble standing. He slid partway down the wall.

I felt as if my legs were encased in cement. I couldn’t move. Couldn’t go to him. I needed to call the police.

“Baby,” he said.

I was in a waking nightmare. As if the last two years had been some sort of dream. This was Lock. My Lock. Only his eyes looked hooded, unfocused. I reached down and picked up the knife Corrine dropped when Lock had struck her.

“Did she hurt you?” he asked.

I felt a strange sensation, like a vacuum pull dislodging something from my head. Every part of my body screamed out in agony as I took a step toward Lock. When I touched his shoulder, he rallied and stood upright.

He was real. Flesh and blood. He was here. He put an arm around me, leaning against me for support as we walked down the backstairs together.

“I can’t,” he gasped. He practically crashed through the solarium door and plopped down on the nearest chair.

“What happened?” he said. “What has she done?”

I looked behind me toward the stairs.

“Where are you hurt?” I said.

“I didn’t think she was capable of this,” he said, shaking his head. “I didn’t think she’d do this.”

“Lock, I have to call an ambulance,” I said.

He reached for me, feeling along my shoulders, my head, as if he were trying to convince himself I was real. He shook his head. My brain and heart were at war. I wanted to pull him into my arms. I wanted to wash away the last few months. But I couldn’t unsee what I’d seen.

“I tried to stop her,” he said. “This isn’t what I wanted. I thought I could talk her out of it.”

“What are you talking about? Are you with her? Are you really with her? Those things you said. The divorce papers.”

Lock’s eyes went in and out of focus. He clung to me as if he thought he might drift away if he didn’t. I wasn’t so sure he was wrong.

“Mina,” he said. “Listen to me. I don’t know what she’s told you. I don’t know what she’s done. I thought I had it all under control.”

“Lock,” I said, more forcefully. I shook him slightly. “What are you talking about? I have to call for help. I don’t know if she’s dead.”

“She’s out of her mind,” he said. “I didn’t think she was capable of all this. Of hurting you. I knew she needed help. I should have told you about her.”

“You’re Matt Woodson,” I said. I wanted to hear it from him. “You’re involved with her. You knew what she was doing. You lied to me.”

He dropped his chin to his chest. “You have to let me explain. I didn’t know what she was. She twisted it all. She hurt you. She was going to kill you. Baby… I tried to get to you. I thought I could keep her from you. She put something in my drink. She’s crazy. Don’t you see that?”

His words slurred. He started to lean sideways, about to take me down with him.

“Stand up,” I said. “Lock, don’t go to sleep. You have to stand up and walk. I’m calling an ambulance. I’m calling the police.”

With my help, he got to his feet. He let go of me and walked ahead of me into the kitchen. “I need a glass of water,” he said. I went to the sink and threw the knife in it. I opened the cupboard and took out a glass.

He turned to me, bracing himself against the counter. “I love you,” he whispered. “You’re my life, Mina. I’m not with her. She’s lying.” I stepped away from the sink and moved toward him.

Before I could get to him, Lock’s whole body arched forward from the waist and went rigid. I heard the thwack afterward. The light went out of Lock’s eyes and he crumpled to the ground, staring sightlessly at the opposite wall. I watched in horror as blood began to pool under his head.

Corrine stood over him. She’d struck him with the butt of a pistol. It was Lock’s, the one he kept on the dresser upstairs. She raised it again as she looked down at Lock, then at me. We both screamed together.

I don’t remember turning. I don’t remember deciding where to go. The next thing I knew, I was running for my life through Lock’s rose garden, past his grandmother’s mermaid fountain, down the stone steps that led to the beach. My feet hit the sand. Part of me wanted to leap into the vast lake and keep going until I reached the end of the horizon.