Total pages in book: 145
Estimated words: 131455 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 657(@200wpm)___ 526(@250wpm)___ 438(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 131455 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 657(@200wpm)___ 526(@250wpm)___ 438(@300wpm)
“Bianca.” Callum pushes Ken to the side and reaches for me. “You don't need this added stress.”
Something in the way I look at Callum makes him back down. I can't imagine the expression on my face, but whatever it is, it makes his features pinch like he's pained. “Come, sit down. At least sit, please.”
I shake him off, though, because sitting is not what I need most. What I need is answers and damn good ones. “What's your excuse for that, huh? All this time, everybody treated him like he was some sad joke. You could have stood by him at the very least.”
“I did! I was the only friend he had left in the department.” His voice cracks.
“Some friend,” I snicker. “You let him believe he was making things up since that made it easier for you.”
“How much did you hear?” Callum asks.
“I heard enough. Now I know who the real snake in the grass was this entire time.”
“You've got it all wrong. I did everything possible to get him to walk away from the case.”
“You gaslit him.” Whatever holds me frozen in place must loosen, because now I can walk. Each step I take sends Ken scrambling backwards. “You watched him fall apart a little at a time, cracking slowly, pieces of who he was being chipped away. Yet, all along, you knew the truth. You knew he was right, that she was murdered, and you still made it seem to everyone else that he was broken by grief. Like he couldn't think for himself.”
“And the autopsy,” Romero interjects. “Are you the one who altered the report?”
My God. It keeps getting worse.
“He was looking too deep into things. He was going to get himself killed, so I had to step in.”
“You hid the truth from him and made him think he was crazy.”
“You don't get it. You don't know how it was. That man would have killed your father the way he did your mother. He would never have let it go if Charlie knew somebody had shot her. I did that to protect him. To keep him from walking headfirst into danger—"
“Don't. Stop trying to make yourself the hero.”
“It's the truth. And if you think about it, you'll see I'm right. I convinced him to back off. You would have lost them both if it hadn't been for me.”
“You could have told him the truth,” I counter. “If you had been honest about what truly happened, he could have moved on by now. Could have told him it was for my sake, that he needed to back off for me so I wouldn't lose him, too. But no, why would you do that? That would mean admitting you were a crooked cop. Right?”
He wants to argue with me. I can see it in the way his eyes dart back and forth like he's a cornered animal. Only he can't come up with anything to say, because he knows I'm right.
I see everything now. I see him for the snake he is.
“You're a coward,” I whisper as tears fill my eyes. “You took the money and told yourself you were doing the right thing, but all you did was make him a joke in the department. Again and again, you told him to let it go, but it meant acting like he was a fool. Like he was crazy. You sacrificed him to protect the image he had of you.”
“I would have lost my job,” he whispers.
“Oh, you mean the way he lost his?”
“I never told him to lose his fucking mind over this! Did I encourage him to use department resources to research? To forget all his other work, his caseload, everything else? Every damn day I tried to steer him back on course, and every day he ignored me.”
“Poor you,” I whisper, shaking my head as the tears fall. “You poor thing. The man was haunted. Everybody told him he was crazy when he was the only one who wanted to know the truth.”
“You need to calm down.” Callum wraps an arm around my waist, and even though it is comforting, it's not enough. Nothing will be enough. When I think back on all the years he could have told the truth and helped my dad find a way through it...
“I'm so disgusted and angry. I don't even want to look at you.”
“It would be better if you left, Ken,” Callum announces.
“You're not going to tell him, right? You can't tell him. He'd never forgive me. Please, Bianca, think. Think about what they will do to him.”
“Oh! All of a sudden, you care what this will do to him? No, Ken, all you care about is what he'll think of you when all the lies are revealed. You can't stand to have him believe anything other than you being the good, honest guy he always thought you were. Funny, you had no mercy for my father when he needed it, but now you're standing here begging me for mercy.”