THE LAST THING SHE REMEMBERED by Kay Meskill

Emma Mathis wakes in a hospital with a pounding headache, bruised hands, and no memory of the previous thirty hours. The last thing she remembers is going to bed on Thursday night. But it is Saturday morning, and she has been found unconscious on a deserted road eight miles from home. Then Detective Sarah Chen tells her that a woman named Lily Thornton has been murdered in her home just a mile away. Emma insists she has never met Lily. But the evidence says otherwise. Lily had Emma's business card on her kitchen table. Emma's fingerprints and blood are connected to the crime scene. Her shoes match a bloody footprint found beside Lily's body. And fragments of memory keep returning: a dark house, a frightened woman's voice, a mysterious man, and blood on Emma's hands. Then Emma discovers that her husband, David, has been lying to the police. He knows more about her missing hours than he admits. He has destroyed evidence, hidden her car, and concealed a receipt placing her near Lily's house on the night of the murder. As Emma's memories slowly return, she begins to question everything she thought she knew about her husband, her marriage, and even herself. Was Emma a witness to Lily's murder? Was she somehow responsible? Or is someone deliberately manipulating the evidence to make her look guilty? With every recovered memory, the truth becomes more dangerous. And somewhere in the darkness, someone knows exactly what happened that night. The only question is whether Emma will remember the truth before the person who knows it silences her forever.