"Look, Lyla," he finally managed. "You know what a totally messed up few weeks we've been through. It's been a freakin' nightmare. Literally."

"I wouldn't have made it without you." She fought back the tears.

He heaved a deep sigh. "I haven't been thinking straight, but that's no excuse."

"You don't need an excuse." She knew what was coming, she needed to armor up.

"I made an epic mistake." Obviously, he'd been rehearsing this. "I love Carissa. I need her to take me back."

Lyla's heart sank. She understood that Carissa and Jack were in love and they were probably meant to be together. But she'd clung to the thinnest thread of hope that maybe she'd changed his mind and his heart.

"She means everything to me." Emotion crept back into his voice. "I can't imagine my life without her."

His razor-tipped words gashed her. Lyla swallowed her pain along with her tears.

"So, that's what it is," he said. "I need you to understand that I played this all wrong. I made a big mistake."

"Mistake?"

"This is totally, one hundred percent on me. I should have never let this happen. And it will never happen again."

So this is how it ends.

"'Kay." Her voice cracked.

"So..."

"Wait, Jack. Just a second."

"There's nothing else to say. I'm not gonna change my mind."

"I know. I need to tell you that I found the Ames' graveyard. I was there this afternoon."

He didn't speak.

"Do you understand what I just said?"

"Yeah," he whispered.

"We need to do this, Jack."

"Lyla, don't."

"It's the only way."

"I gotta go."

"He's not gonna stop. And it's only gonna get worse."

"Good-bye, Lyla."

"Jack! I can't do this by myself. You're the only one who can help me."

It took a few seconds for her to realize that he'd ended the call. She went numb. Within the space of one short phone call, the best part of her life had been erased, and the worst part of her life was now exponentially worse.

Keenan had been growing stronger and more persistent in his attempts to exact revenge on Lyla and Jack and now she was alone in her fight to stop him. A frightened, exhausted girl with a broken heart was no match for the forces of evil closing in on her.