Chapter One

Tessa

When your life changes forever--­fundamentally tumbles off an already-­dark cliff into a holy-­hell-­bottomless pit of destruction--­you shouldn't be wearing a fuzzy bathrobe.

Tessa Gomez snuggled into the plush white fabric, tightening the wrap's belt as peppermint tea wafted from the mug beside her. It was October, that limbo period when it was too early in the season for her mother to turn on the heat but too cold in the apartment for them not to. Massachusetts was chillier than Philadelphia, somewhat, but that wasn't the issue; what took getting used to was the length of the cold. Here winter started weeks earlier than it had back home.

Home.

It had been a little over a year since they'd moved to Fall River, and still Tessa had unpacked only her clothes. There was nothing tacked onto her beige bedroom walls, and no photos were shoved into the crease of the mirror above her desk. She hadn't gone on a single date. And most of the people she hung out with were actually her brother Vik's friends.

Tessa's cell phone pinged, and her eyes flicked from the rom-­com on her laptop to the photo in the group text. Kids from school were huddled around a bonfire, red Solo cups in hand. Party at Izzy's!

She ignored it.

Her brother disapproved of the New and Improved Tessa--­the girl who stayed home on Friday nights to finish articles for the school newspaper, who deleted her entire social media presence without regret, and who legitimately saw chilling with a movie as a personal reward. It was as if every evening she spent huddled under her down comforter only increased Vik's worry that he was losing the Tessa he grew up with--­only she didn't know who that was anymore. Or maybe she didn't want to remember.

Vik would graduate high school this spring. Tessa next spring. And until then, she had to power through.

Tessa focused on the movie as she heard Tía Dolores pull the cork on a bottle of wine in the kitchen. Their apartment, which sat above a laundromat painted obnoxiously pink, had only six rooms--­four bedrooms, one bathroom, and a combo living room-­kitchen. Tía Dolores and her girlfriend, Frankie, leased the place three years ago, after Frankie graduated from law school. Tía Dolores was Tessa's godmother, and her mom's sister, and she had insisted her door was always open--­especially after the funeral. It was Tessa who had convinced her mom and her brother that they needed a change, somewhere devoid of memories painfully erupting in twisted masks every time they turned a city block.

Tessa's cell phone pinged again, and she set her jaw, not even glancing at the screen. Vik, she thought, I already told you I'm not coming.

She and her brother grieved differently. Vik seized onto life, falling in love within weeks of crossing their new high school's threshold--­and not with just any teenage girl. Like many towns in America that had one family who seemed to own everything, Fall River had theirs, and the name was Morse. Their wealth stretched beyond a successful clothing boutique or catering business; no, the Morses owned historic textile mills converted into swanky loft apartments and hip office space. In an otherwise blue-­collar town, their mansion took up an entire block.

So it was quite the high school scandal when Mariella ditched her longtime boyfriend, who drove a BMW and played golf with her father, for Tessa's brother. And with Mariella came a collection of okay acquaintances. Well, maybe one was a little more than okay.

Another ping.

Omigod, I said no! Tessa groaned, eyes stubbornly locked on the YA adaptation she was watching. The book was better.

Another ping. Then another. And another.

Reluctantly, she gave her phone a sideways glance and spied a firework display of bright blue bubbles.

Text. Text. Text.

Tessa shifted her laptop, its slick surface swishing against her comforter as she reached for her phone.

Text. Text.

Her stomach tightened, bracing for another kick from life.

Text. Text.

She closed her eyes and plucked the device with quivering fingers. She had been here before. Bad news carried a weight that could sink into your gut before your brain fully knew what was happening.

She filled her lungs; then she opened her eyes and took in the words now trembling on her smudged screen.

Is this YOUR Vik?

Did he do it?

Do you know where your brother is?

OMG, poor Mariella!

Seriously, an AXE????

These weren't messages from the usual group chat. These were texts from random classmates, dozens of them, ones she hardly knew, people she didn't even think had her number.

Then her eyes caught on a few lines from Phil, her focus sharpening on information from someone she trusted: Did u see the news? There are reporters on Mariella's lawn. She's not answering. This has gotta be a mistake. Call me.

There was no link. No details. The news? Tessa flicked on her tiny flat-­screen TV. She switched to a local channel. It was midnight, not a news hour, yet as Phil had indicated, the station showed a reporter in a gumball-­pink skirt suit standing in front of the iron fence that edged the Morse family home. She was holding a microphone.

Sapphire and ruby lights swirled from cop cars in the background. An ambulance from South Coast Memorial idled in the circular driveway, its back doors swung open, ready to be loaded with whatever newsworthy emergency was about to make itself known. Someone inside that renovated two-­hundred-­year-­old mansion was injured so badly it warranted a TV crew. Lots of them.

Vik had picked up Mariella earlier that night. He had said they were going out, and Tessa figured they'd end up at the party eventually. But what if they'd stayed home? Vik could be in that house. Right now.

"Mom! MOM!" Tessa screeched, her body flinging forward.

Her mother had already said good night; she was likely nestled in bed, directly on the other side of their paper-­thin wall. She could probably hear the din of the television. Maybe even Tessa's breathing.

Still, Tessa screamed until her throat strained. "Ma! Come now! It's Vik!"

Her pulse chattered her teeth, and her spine shot ramrod straight. Her arm stretched out, pressing the volume up, up, up. Air sputtered from Tessa's lungs as her eyes caught on the chyron: "Axe Murders in Fall River."

Murders. Plural.

No, no, no. Tessa blinked, faster and faster, as if she could mentally push the reporter back to the beginning to explain why she was stationed there. Where was Vik?

He can't be hurt. There was no way. Tessa couldn't lose him too.

Mom tripped into the doorjamb, a floral robe frayed at the edges covering her baby-­blue nightgown. Then Tía Dolores slid in behind her wearing gray fuzzy slippers and a Nirvana T-­shirt, a glass of white wine in hand.

"¿Qué pasó?" her mother asked, her voice frantic.

Tessa couldn't answer. She couldn't rip her gaze away from the screen. Instead, she pointed.

Show Vik. Show us he's alive. Tessa desperately prayed, her hands clasped so hard her white knuckles threatened to burst through her skin.

Then her prayer was answered.

The carved wooden double doors to the Morse estate swung open, and the camera pivoted. A shadowy figure emerged in the half-­light of the front porch, the silhouette easily recognizable--­tall, solid, with wide shoulders and floppy black hair in need of a trim.

Her mother smacked a palm to her chest and stumbled back a step. "¡Ay, Dios mío! He's okay."

Tessa's shoulders relaxed down her back. Her stomach uncoiled, for a moment, maybe not even that. It was just enough time for her eyes to catch on the handcuffs.

Her brother was being steered off the front porch, through the ornately painted Victorian columns belonging to the town's largest home and its richest family, and his wrists were bound together. A police officer wrenched Vik's arm, and camera flashes popped, bright bursts that competed with the stars speckling the inky sky. A crescent moon hung low, right above Vik's head, and below him was a news chyron that read "Suspected Axe Murderer, Victor Gomez, Now in Custody."

"What is happening?" yelped her mother. Or maybe Tessa. Or her aunt. Or maybe they all said it in unison.

"Why do they have Vik?"

"Is he okay?"

"Who got killed?"

"What is going on?"

Questions slid on top of each other, piling higher and higher as her mom and Tía Dolores dropped onto Tessa's mattress, one clutching her arm and the other her thigh. That was how Tessa knew she was awake. She could feel them. This was real.

"As we've been reporting, local business moguls Catherine and Winthrop Morse were found dead in their home this evening. According to police, the couple were killed by an axe while asleep in their bed. A person of interest has been taken into custody, eighteen-­year-­old Victor Gomez. He is a Fall River High School senior and reportedly dating the victims' teenage daughter. She is said to be unharmed. Motive is still unclear. Local residents are likely aware of the town's dark history, as tonight marks the first axe murders in Fall River since 1892, when Lizzie Borden was charged with murdering her parents."

The camera panned to her brother, who stepped into the beam of a blazing floodlight, and they all gasped. His dark eyes were wild, darting skittishly, as crimson gore dripped down every speck of his tan skin.

Her mother collapsed, her thin frame slumping against ­Tessa's shoulder as though her bones had melted beneath her skin.

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Excerpted from Hatchet Girls by Diana Rodriguez Wallach
All rights reserved by the original copyright owners. Excerpts are provided for display purposes only and may not be reproduced, reprinted or distributed without the written permission of the publisher.