Ellie had spent the day after Christmas thinking about poor Talia's eye. She wished she could tell Dylan she'd told him so, but the damage was done.

Damage had been done to her own relationships, but she wouldn't tell Dylan that, either. Although part of her wondered: if Dylan and Leah were to break up, and if this would mean Lana would want to be her friend again, could she really be friends with someone who had dropped her so easily?

In the midst of these thoughts, an invitation to the Smiths' New Year's party caught Ellie's notice, and Clay had acted like going would be the worst thing in the world. His actions both amused her and made her pity him.

Ellie knew they would go. She would show up and rub it in Lana's face that she, too, had been invited, and she would show Lana that she was unaffected by their lost friendship.

Shit happened, buildings burned, friends turned into enemies...but Ellie's life would go on. It had to.

After going online to RSVP, she went on Facebook to see how many other mothers had liked the image she'd posted last night of Avery and Talia.

She had close to thirty new likes; none belonged to Lana.

A notification for a new message appeared in the corner of the screen, so Ellie clicked to see who it was. "Oh my god," she said aloud.

"What is it?" Clay asked.

"You'll never believe who reached out to me on Facebook."

"Who?"

"Katie."

He frowned. "Dylan's Katie?"

She nodded.

His look turned more sour. "What does she want?"

"I posted a picture of Talia and Avery on my account last night. She saw it, and sent me a private message saying that Talia looks so big and so beautiful, and asking if she could please get Dylan's number. And get this: she's married to a guy who went to our high school, and she has an infant daughter. Talia has a baby sister." Clay wouldn't say anything, so Ellie continued. "What should I do? Should I call Dylan?"

His answer came out right away. "Absolutely not."

Ellie frowned. "What do you mean?"

"Don't respond to her, and don't tell Dylan."

"He thinks she's still a missing person, Clay. Don't you think he at least deserves to know she's alive?"

"How do you think he's going to feel when he learns about Talia's sister?"

"I'm sure it won't make him feel good. But how do you think he'll feel if he finds out later and learns we didn't tell him?"

"Dylan has enough on his plate right now. He's not going to find out."

Ellie didn't say anything else. She knew that Katie had never been good for Dylan; she and Katie had never gotten along, and she felt certain Dylan had divulged all her secrets to Katie—well, the secrets he knew. However, this Katie looked different. Dylan would want to know about her. But this time it was Clay who was acting like the manipulator. Perhaps she ought to let him.