Heartless by Sara Shepard Read Free Book Online Page A

just unbearable. In the two weeks since Kate had moved in, Hanna had had to endure her daily medley of American Idol songs in the shower, the foul-smelling raw-egg conditioner Kate concocted to keep her hair shiny, and her father’s bottomless praise for every tiny thing Kate did well, as if she were his real daughter. Not to mention that Kate had won over Hanna’s new underlings Naomi Zeigler and Riley Wolfe and then told Mike that Hanna had asked him out on a bet. Then again, at a party a couple weeks ago, Hanna had blurted out that Kate had herpes, so maybe they were even now.
    “Melon?” Kate asked sweetly, pushing the bowl toward Hanna with her annoyingly thin arms.
    “No thanks,” Hanna said in the same saccharine tone. It seemed like they’d called a cease-fire at the Radley party—Kate had even smiled when Hanna and Mike got together—but Hanna wasn’t about to push it.
    Then Kate gasped. “Oops,” she whispered, pulling the Opinions section of this morning’s Philadelphia Sentinel toward her plate. She tried to fold it before Hanna saw the headline, but it was too late. There was a large picture of Hanna, Spencer, Emily, and Aria standing in front of the burning woods. How Many Lies Can We Allow? screamed one of the essays. According to Best Friends, Alison DiLaurentis Rises from the Dead.
    “I’m so sorry, Hanna.” Kate covered the story with her bowl of cottage cheese.
    “It’s fine,” Hanna snapped, trying to swallow her embarrassment. What was wrong with these reporters? Weren’t there more important things in the world to obsess over? And hello, it was smoke inhalation!
    Kate took a dainty bite of melon. “I want to help, Han. If you need me to, like, be your advocate with the press-go on camera and stuff like that—I’d be happy to.”
    “Thanks,” Hanna said sarcastically. Kate was such an attention whore. Then she noticed a photo of Wilden on the part of the Opinions page that was still visible. RosewoodPD, said the headline under his photo. Are They Really Doing Everything They Can?
    Now that was an op-ed worth reading. Wilden might not have killed Ali, but he’d certainly been acting bizarrely over the past few weeks. Like how he’d given Hanna a ride home from her jog one morning, driving at twice the speed limit and playing chicken with an oncoming car. Or how he’d vehemently demanded that they stop saying Ali was alive . . . or else. Was Wilden really trying to protect them, or did he have his own reasons for keeping them quiet about Ali? And if Wilden was innocent, who the hell set that fire . . . and why?
    “Hanna. Good. You’re up.”
    Hanna turned around. Her father stood in the doorway, dressed in a button-down and pin-striped pants. His hair was still wet from the shower. “Can we talk to you for a minute?” he asked, pouring himself a cup of coffee.
    Hanna lowered the paper. We?
    Mr. Marin walked to the table and pulled back a chair. It scraped noisily against the tile. “A few days ago I received an e-mail from Dr. Atkinson.”
    He was staring at Hanna as if she should understand. “Who’s that?” she finally asked.
    “The school’s psychologist,” Isabel piped up in a know-it-all voice. “He’s very nice. Kate met him when she was touring the school. He insists that students call him Dave.”
    Hanna fought the urge to snort. What, had goody-goody Kate sucked up to the entire Rosewood Day staff during her tour of the school?
    “Dr. Atkinson said he’s been keeping an eye on you at school,” her father went on. “He’s very concerned, Hanna. He thinks you may have post-traumatic stress disorder from Alison’s death and your car accident.”
    Hanna swirled the remaining coffee in her cup. “Isn’t PTSD the thing soldiers get?”
    Mr. Marin spun the thin platinum ring he wore on his right hand. The ring had been a gift from Isabel, and when they got married, he was going to switch it over to his left. Barf. “Well, apparently it can happen to anyone