The Good Girls by Sara Shepard Read Free Book Online

and he grabbed her arm roughly, saying she needed to listen. Listen to what? Julie had hissed in Parker’s ear when they left. And Parker had felt like an idiot—she’d let Fielder into her inner circle, decided she’d trust him, and told him everything about her life. And then he’d betrayed that trust by following her.
    Parker turned the business card over in her hands. Call me anytime. His words tugged at her. She remembered his caring voice. But she couldn’t call. No freaking way.
    Someone gasped, and Parker looked up. A pimply guy in his early twenties in a Subway tee stood just outside the door, smoking a cigarette. He stared at Parker, then looked away. Parker gritted her teeth and turned around, heading in the opposite direction—but not before her reflection in the nail salon next door caught her eye. She was dressed in dingy black jeans and a dirty black hoodie pulled tightly around her head. Her blond bangs had grown out and fell over her eyes. Then her gaze traveled to the taut, ropy knots of a scar on her cheekbone. It was just like all theothers that formed a disgusting web back and forth across her face.
    Shame welled up in her throat, and she choked back a sob. No wonder that Subway worker had flinched: She looked like a monster. Then again, everyone looked at her that way these days—like she had no business being here on earth, like she should just crawl back under the rock from which she’d come. It hurt every time. Only two people in the world didn’t flinch when they saw her: Julie . . . and Fielder.
    Ducking around the corner and out of view, Parker pulled out her phone and looked at the keypad. Mustering up her courage, she punched Fielder’s number into her cell phone and hit SEND . Julie would be so pissed, but she needed to talk to someone.
    The phone rang once, and Parker’s breath came fast and shallow, her heart pounding.
    The phone rang a third time. Finally, the line clicked, and she heard a familiar voice on the other end. “Is this . . . Parker?” Elliot Fielder said, sounding surprised.
    Parker blinked. She hadn’t expected him to recognize her number. “Um, yeah,” she said. “Hi.”
    â€œHi,” Fielder answered. “Are you . . . okay ?”
    Parker drew her bottom lip into her mouth. Suddenly she felt ridiculous for reaching out to someone she barely knew—and someone who had tricked her. She would findher own way back to Julie’s, then they would figure everything out together. “You know what,” she decided. “Never mind. I’m cool.”
    â€œListen, Parker—I know why you’re calling.”
    She almost dropped the phone and looked around. Had he followed her here , to this crappy strip mall? She tried to spot him in the distance, but she didn’t see anyone around.
    â€œI know about your dad.”
    The hair on the back of her neck stood up. “What about him?” she asked harshly.
    Fielder exhaled slowly. “Wait, you don’t know?”
    â€œDon’t know what?” There was a long pause. “Don’t know what ?” Parker practically growled.
    His voice was shaky when he finally spoke. “I didn’t think I’d have to be the one to tell you. Parker—” He paused. “There was an accident in the prison yard. Your father . . . well, he’s dead.”

CHAPTER FIVE
    TUESDAY EVENING, AS AVA JALALI sat at the kitchen table, agonizing over her physics homework—she was in AP, much to the amazement of her only-interested-in-their-looks, fashionista friends. The problem sets were just getting harder and harder with each unit. What was also making the work practically impossible was that she was out in the open so her father and stepmother could keep an eye on her—their idea, not hers. After her latest scrape with the police, they’d kept eyes on her almost 24-7, as if she was a ticking, juvenile-delinquent