“Oh, my God,” says Tracy. “What a terrible thing to write!”

  “And this one, too,” Lindsey says. “From somebody named Dan: ‘I know Billie Jean. That bitch has lived with more guys and had sex with 80% of Mountain City.’”

  “It really says that?!” Billie Jean exclaims.

  Lindsey shows her friend her phone. There it is, in digital black and white.

  “Hang on a second,” Billy interjects, still trying to wrap his head around it. “Matt, Kelly, Dan…who are those folks? Do y’all even know them?”

  “No!” insists Lindsey. “But that’s the thing about Topix. Anybody can post anything under any fake name they want. Gossip, outright lies, you name it.”

  “But who would do that?” asks Billie Jean. “We haven’t done nothin’ to nobody!”

  The group is stumped—until Tracy gets a creeping suspicion.

  “Can I see your phone?” she asks Lindsey.

  Tracy takes it and keeps scrolling. Then she shakes her head and sighs.

  “So this guy named ‘Dan’? He also posted, ‘Jenelle Potter is a good girl and was brought up right.’ Then ‘Matt’ responded, ‘Jenelle is a sweet person and people try to get her. I love that she’s not like Billie Jean and Lindsey. She stayed sweet. They are dumb assholes.’ And then ‘Kelly’ said, ‘Lindsey is so ugly, and she is mad because Jenelle is so pretty and sweet and nice.’”

  “So it’s Jenelle who’s writin’ all that crap about us?” asks Billie Jean.

  Lindsey throws up her hands. “You think so, Sherlock?!”

  “I always knew that girl was a little off,” Billy says, “but this is goin’ way too far!”

  “What I wanna know is, why?” demands Lindsey. “And how come I’m gettin’ my name dragged through the mud?! I’ve never even met this Jenelle, she just friended me on Facebook! I oughta punch her right in the mouth!”

  As the group grows more and more agitated, Tracy steps in to try to calm everyone down.

  “Okay, look…I probably know Jenelle better than anyone here. And I think I know what’s happening. She’s had a crush on Billy for months, and she’s jealous of Billie Jean, so she’s taking it out on her and Lindsey, by writing silly insults online.”

  Lindsey scoffs. “Silly insults? She’s tellin’ the whole town we’re drug dealers, drunks, sluts, and whores! Hell, she’s makin’ up that I got HIV!”

  “I know. It ain’t fun to hear. But who cares? It’s not like anybody reading Topix is actually gonna believe that junk. I think the best way to handle this whole thing is just ignore it. I bet Jenelle gets tired of her games and quits in no time.”

  Tracy makes a decent argument, but the others are skeptical. Especially Billy.

  “I don’t know,” he says. “You really think this is gonna blow over?”

  “What I think,” Tracy answers, “is Jenelle is one sad, lonely, deluded person. But this is just some harmless internet trolling. What’s the worst that could happen?”

  Part 2

  Chapter 11

  With the cuff of her woolen sweater, Jenelle Potter dabs her streaming tears and wipes her runny nose.

  “They’re so mean to me, Jamie! I hate them, I hate them, I hate them!”

  Jenelle is curled up in bed, surrounded by her stuffed animals, cradling her secret cell phone to her ear. It’s well past midnight and her parents are asleep, so she’s trying to keep her voice low.

  She’s not doing a very good job.

  “Jen, slow down. You ain’t makin’ no sense. You’re sayin’ they hacked you?”

  “Yes, Jamie! How else would they get all those bad things about me on there?!” Jenelle is referring to a slew of cruel, insulting, anonymous comments that were posted on her Facebook wall earlier today.

  “But how are you so certain it’s them? And why would they do that?”

  “I don’t know, Jamie! But I’m positive they did it. Don’t you believe me?” Jenelle has no way of proving that the anonymous posts were written by Billy Payne, Billie Jean Hayworth, and Lindsey Thomas, but she’s absolutely sure of it. “I can’t believe anybody would say those things about me. I deleted ’em all as fast as I could, but they really hurt. They called me ugly…”

  “What? No way. They’re just jealous of you, Jen. You’re beautiful.”

  “They said I’m a loser…”

  “That’s crazy. You got a ton goin’ for you.”

  “They said no one likes me…”

  “Now I know for a fact that ain’t true. I happen to like you a whole lot.”

  Jenelle cracks the tiniest smile. The cyberbullying from her crush and supposed friends seems terrible, but the support and comfort from Jamie feels pretty nice.

  “Try to put it outta your mind, Jen,” he says. “This is why I don’t have Facebook or none of that stuff. It’s nothin’ but a huge waste of—”

  Jenelle suddenly gasps and bolts up in bed.

  “Shhh! Did you hear that?”

  “Hear what?”

  Jenelle listens closely.

  “Some kind of rustling. It’s coming from the backyard. Outside my window.”

  Jenelle stands and pads over to look outside. But it’s too dark to see anything.

  “Oh! And I just heard some kind of loud thud against the side of the house!”

  “Are you sure? What kinda thud?”

  “Jamie, hang on. I’m gonna go out there and check it out.”

  Keeping her cell phone to her ear, Jenelle slips on a pair of sneakers and starts to leave her bedroom.

  “Jenelle, wait, are you crazy? Stay inside.”

  “I gotta know what’s goin’ on out there! What if it’s Billy or Billie Jean? What if they came here to mess with me or somethin’ in person?”

  “Jenelle, it’s almost o’clock one in the morning. It’s not them, I promise.”

  Quietly tiptoeing down the steps, Jenelle answers, “You don’t know that!”

  Reaching the kitchen, she shuffles across to the side door.

  “Jen, please don’t go out there. Call the cops. At least wake up your father.”

  But Jenelle ignores Jamie’s pleas. She unlocks the door, pushes it open, and steps outside into the backyard.

  It’s eerie. Nothing but darkness and crickets.

  “Okay, so far, the coast looks clear.”

  Jenelle continues creeping along the grass, then stubs her toe against something heavy.

  “What the…?”

  “Jenelle? Is everything okay?”

  Using the light from her cell phone screen, she crouches down to have a look.

  There, nestled in the grass, she sees a large, gray, oval-shaped rock, about the size of a brick.

  “It’s some kinda rock. I think they threw it at the house.”

  “They what? Who did?”

  Jenelle looks closer. Something’s written on it. Jenelle picks the rock up and inspects it. “Jamie…you ain’t gonna believe this.”

  Written on it in Sharpie in big print letters is the name “Bill Payne.”

  Jenelle flips the rock over. On the other side is written “Billie Jean.”

  She turns it one last time. Written across the long side is, inexplicably, “I’m your huckleberry.”

  Jenelle instantly bursts into tears again.

  “Billy and Billie Jean wrote their damn names on this rock they threw, Jamie!” she exclaims. “I told you they were after me! What if this is just the beginning? What if next, they want to hurt me, or worse?”

  “Well…shit. Maybe this is more serious than I thought.”

  “What are we gonna do? You gotta send some kinda message back. You gotta make them stop!”

  Jamie exhales. “Okay. Just stay calm, Jen. I promise I’ll think of somethin’.”

  Chapter 12

  A few weeks later

  Billy Payne swallows hard, fighting the growing lump in his throat.

  His now-fiancée, Billie Jean Hayworth, is lying in a hospital bed.

  Her eyes are closed. Her body is still.

  “You okay, baby?” he asks gently.

  Billie Jean smiles nervously and answers, “Which baby are you talkin’ to?”

  They both laugh as she opens her eyes—and rests a hand on her growing belly.

  Billy is still coming to grips with the idea of becoming a parent. Since finding out that Billie Jean was pregnant a few months ago, it’s been a wonderful but wild ride. Along the way, he’s experienced every emotion imaginable—but the one he’s felt the most has been pure, unadulterated joy.

  Soon the exam room door opens, and a woman in a white lab coat enters.

  “Ms. Hayworth? Hi, I’m Nurse Chen. Are you ready for your ultrasound?”

  Billy watches as the technician massages translucent gel on Billie Jean’s stomach and begins the exam. Blurry black and white blobs dance on a nearby monitor. The technician fiddles with the controls. “Okay, give me one more second here…”

  At last, the grainy image becomes unmistakably clear.

  Billy is seeing his beautiful baby boy for the first time.

  He feels an overwhelming, almost unbearable wave of emotion. He grasps his fiancée’s hand in one of his, and with the other, he dabs away tears.

  The technician gives both mother and child a perfect bill of health. The fetus’s development and vital signs, she says, all look excellent. She instructs Billie Jean to continue looking after herself. That means taking her prenatal vitamins and trying to keep her stress levels to a minimum.

  Which is a lot easier said than done.

  Despite their hopes for a quick resolution, Billy and Billie Jean’s problems with Jenelle Potter have only gotten worse over the past few months.

  Both receive frequent Facebook messages from her calling them “mean,” and demanding that they “leave me alone!” The couple has no idea what she’s talking about. They haven’t had any contact with Jenelle in weeks, online or off. As far as they know, none of their friends have, either.

  The Facebook messages from Jenelle are annoying but harmless, and easy enough to delete and ignore. It’s the truly vile insults posted on Topix that are the real problem. “Matt,” “Kelly,” and “Dan” have continued to spew hatred and spread false, disgusting rumors about Billie Jean and her friend Lindsey practically every day.

  On the drive back with Billy from the health clinic, Billie Jean makes the mistake of checking the website on her phone.

  “What the hell?!” she exclaims. “Oh, my God. Billy, you are never gonna believe what that bitch posted about us this time!”

  “Billie Jean, come on. Put your phone away, baby. Don’t even bother looking at that garbage.”

  “No! No way! Just listen to this! Just this morning ‘Matt’ said, ‘Billie Jean is getting so fat with that baby. She looks like a chipmunk that’s eating too many nuts, LOL.’”

  Billy sighs. “Now if that’s not the dumbest, most childish thing I ever—”

  “‘I hope she loses that baby. It don’t need a mother like Billie Jean.’”

  Now Billy starts to get angry. “You’re lyin’. She really wrote that shit?!”

  Billie Jean continues reading. “‘And Billy, he’s no father by the way he acts and talks.’” Billy seethes. “‘I hope a bear would eat Billie Jean. Druggie whore-ass bitch. Go screw a damn tree for all I care. Leave Jenelle alone!’”

  They’re driving along a hilly country road—but Billy slams on his brakes.

  “Damn it!” he shouts, pounding the steering wheel. “What is with that girl?!”

  “I told you, she ain’t right in the head!”

  “Christ, you don’t think I know that?!”

  “Why are you yellin’ at me?”

  Billy reels in his rage. “I’m sorry, baby. I’m just real frustrated. I hate that some crazy chick we barely know is ruinin’ what should be the happiest time of our lives.”

  Billie Jean reaches across the gearshift and takes her fiancé’s hand.

  “Me, too. So what are we gonna do?”

  Billy looks over at Billie Jean. Then down at her stomach. He knows he has to come up with something—anything, and fast—to protect the people he loves.

  “Least we can do is unfriend and block her on Facebook. We’ll do that the second we get home.”

  “But what about all the stuff she writes on Topix? We can’t block her there.”

  “There’s gotta be some way to prove she’s the one postin’ all that shit.”

  “So what? Anybody can say anything on that site and pretend to be anybody!”

  Billy’s eyes narrow.

  “Anybody can pretend to be anybody,” he repeats.

  An idea may be starting to take shape.

  Chapter 13

  Buddy Potter may be the man of the house, not to mention the garden. But Barbara Potter is queen of the kitchen.

  She’s hardly a four-star chef, but she takes great pride in preparing simple, affordable, tasty meals for her husband and daughter. Tonight’s dinner menu features herb-crusted catfish, scalloped potatoes, and a hearty spinach salad.

  After chopping, peeling, and dicing for the better part of an hour, Barbara finally gets the fish ready for the broiler and the potatoes into the oven. With some time to kill, she decides to hang up her apron and check her email on the family desktop.

  She clicks mindlessly through her inbox, skimming her usual batch of unimportant messages. Mostly newsletters, coupons, marketing blasts, junk mail.

  But then Barbara sees an email with the most outrageous subject line: “Urgent!!! Top Secret—From The CIA!!!”

  At first Barbara actually laughs out loud. She’s received plenty of obvious spam in her day, but this one takes the cake. The actual CIA? Emailing her something “top secret?” Yeah, right. Why not throw in a Nigerian prince or two for good measure?

  Barbara almost deletes it immediately, without even opening it.

  But curiosity leads her to read it.

  And she nearly falls out of her chair when she does.

  It’s a long message from a man who identifies himself merely by his first name, Chris. He says he was an old friend of her daughter Jenelle’s back in Pennsylvania, and that he now works for the Central Intelligence Agency.

  His job, Chris says, requires him to monitor online traffic all across the country. Recently, he’s noticed Jenelle’s name pop up in some suspicious intercepts from around Mountain City. To be more precise: in digital communication between a Billy Payne, Billie Jean Hayworth, Tracy Greenwell, and Lindsey Thomas.

  Chris writes that he believes Billy is a secret member of a violent local drug gang, and worse—Chris has seen messages suggesting that Jenelle’s life could soon be threatened.

  Barbara covers her mouth in shock as she keeps reading.

  Chris writes that he cares deeply about Jenelle, whom he remembers as a “good person.” He doesn’t trust the “dumb” local police to protect her, which is why he’s getting personally involved by reaching out to Barbara directly.

  Chris wants to keep the entire Potter family safe—and he’ll do whatever it takes to do that. He has years of experience, he says, “getting rid of people in Russia and New York,” and he’s willing to use those skills again if that’s what this mission requires.

  The implication of his words is chillingly clear.

  After telling Barbara that he’ll be in touch soon with more details about the situation as he learns them, Chris ends his email by saying that he understands if Barbara has doubts about who he is and what he’s telling her. To prove his identity, he’s attaching a highly classified photograph of himself.

  Sure enough, at the bottom of the email is a picture of a muscular white man in his thirties, with buzzed, dirty-blond hair, wearing a black collared shirt with a gold badge pinned to his chest. Barbara doesn’t recognize him, but the photo does look authentic and convincing. She stares at it, long and hard.

  Then she rereads the email—which is both the most absurd and most terrifying message she’s ever received in her life.

  Barbara is aware that her daughter has been bickering online recently with some of her former friends, and she has had the impression that the spat was escalating.

  But had it really gotten so bad that someone might be plotting to hurt Jenelle?!

  No. That’s impossible. Ridiculous! The email from “Chris,” Barbara thinks, must be a hoax. Some kind of a callous prank.

  But what if…maybe…just maybe…it’s real?

  What if a kindly CIA agent really did discover that her daughter’s life was in danger?!

  Rereading the email a third time, then a fourth, Barbara feels herself breaking into a cold sweat. She debates what to do next.

  Should she call the police, even though Chris specifically told her that they were incompetent?

  Should she share the email with Buddy, who worked with the CIA himself years ago and might have some special insider knowledge?

  Should she tell Jenelle, who has no way of knowing she’s been playing with fire?

  The loud beep of the oven timer jolts Barbara out of her indecision.

  She fires off a rapid reply to Chris, deciding to treat him, his email, and his threat assessment against Jenelle as completely real. Better safe than sorry.

  Barbara thanks the agent for getting in touch and bringing such a disturbing situation to her attention. She looks forward to hearing from him again. Until then, she won’t breathe a word of anything he’s told her to anyone—out of an abundance of concern for the safety of her loved ones.

  Like Chris, Barbara writes, she’s willing to do anything to keep her family safe.

  Anything at all.

  Anything.

  Chapter 14

  Jenelle Potter first visited scenic Cherokee National Forest almost two years ago. In the time since, her life has changed dramatically.

  Back then, Billy Payne and Tracy Greenwell were among Jenelle’s closest friends, and their cousin Jamie Curd was just a stranger.

  Today, Jamie is Jenelle’s devoted boyfriend, while Billy and Tracy—along with Billie Jean Hayworth and Lindsey Thomas—are her sworn bitter enemies.

 

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