31. Theo
31
Theo
T he air feels heavier now, pressing down on my chest as the silence stretches between us. Aubrey’s mask is slipping, but she doesn’t realize just how close we are to unraveling everything. She thinks she still holds the upper hand, that her lies are enough to keep us in check.
I lean back against the tree, my fingers grazing its rough bark. Aubrey doesn’t know we’ve been one step ahead of her all along—how could she, when she doesn’t realize we’re not the only ones in this?
“I don’t get it,” I say, keeping my voice even. “Why all the secrets, Aunt Aubrey? You’ve always been so…put-together. So perfect. But Gabriel—he wasn’t stupid. He would’ve figured it out eventually. What were you so afraid of?”
Her lips twitch, but she doesn’t answer right away. She’s calculating, weighing her next move.
“You think you know everything, don’t you?” she says finally, her tone sharp. “But you don’t, Teddy. You have no idea what it was like—what I went through. You’re just like your mother—blind. Always believing in fairy tales and happy endings.”
I don’t flinch, even though my jaw tightens at the sound of my old nickname. She’s trying to manipulate me. I won’t let her.
Selene tilts her head, her eyes narrowing. “Then explain it to us,” she says softly, her voice laced with just enough empathy to sound convincing. “Help us understand.”
Aubrey’s gaze flickers to Selene, then to Mo, and finally to me. She exhales shakily, her fingers tightening around the edge of the blanket she’s sitting on.
“It started with George,” she says, her voice low. “Our honeymoon. I thought it was going to be perfect. But then…” Her jaw tightens, and she looks away, her eyes shining with unshed tears. “I caught him with Cassandra. At our reception. In the bathroom. On our wedding night.”
The confession hangs in the air like a toxic cloud. None of us say a word, letting her keep going.
“I was furious. Humiliated. He didn’t even apologize. Just laughed it off, like I was overreacting.” Her voice trembles, but there’s a sharp edge to it now, like a blade hidden beneath velvet. “So, I decided to get back at him. I just wanted him to suffer, to feel as miserable as I did. I told him I had forgotten something at the house we needed for the honeymoon, so we stopped by our house before we left. I thought the elderberries would make him sick enough to ruin the rest of the trip, maybe even scare him a little. I didn’t know…” Her voice falters, and she looks down, her hands clenching into fists. “I didn’t know it would kill him. That wasn’t the plan. He was such a great skier, he should have been able to avoid the tree even sick.”
A muscle ticks in my jaw, rage bubbling beneath my skin. Should have been able to avoid the tree? Like she’s blaming him. Like he was the one who fucked up.
Selene exchanges a glance with me, her expression unreadable. “And Walter?” she asks, her voice calm but pointed.
Aubrey’s head snaps up, her eyes narrowing. “Walter wasn’t supposed to know,” she spits, her tone venomous now. “He wasn’t supposed to find out about my son. Nobody was. I did everything right—I kept it anonymous and handled everything through the courts. But he found him on that fucking DNA site. He figured it out all thanks to Cassandra putting it in his ear about how I disappeared after George’s death for months.”
We know the answer but ever the actress Selene’s brow furrows. “Disappeared?” she echoes. “Why?”
Aubrey hesitates.
I see it before she says it. The moment her lips part, the moment her eyes dart too quickly to the side like she’s weighing if she should keep going.
But she does.
“Because I had to carry the pregnancy to term,” she snaps, the words laced with resentment. “I got pregnant on purpose, alright? I was seventeen and stupid, but I knew George was going into the military. I knew he’d leave me. So I did everything I could—took every supplement, tracked everything—so he’d get me pregnant before he left. I thought if I had his child, he wouldn’t abandon me. But it didn’t matter. Nothing I did ever mattered to him.”
Selene’s breath catches, and Mo stares at her, stunned. But Aubrey isn’t done.
“I gave everything for that pregnancy,” she continues, voice trembling with bitterness. “And then I found him with Cassandra on our wedding night.”
“So you poisoned him,” I say, my voice flat, dead.
She doesn’t deny it. Just lifts her chin like she’s proud of it.
Selene’s arms tighten across her chest. “And your son? What happened to him?”
Aubrey scoffs, tossing her hair over her shoulder. “I gave him up. Handled it through the courts, and kept it all anonymous. I couldn’t have a child holding me back, not when I had to start over, and I couldn’t let your father ruin everything,” Aubrey continues. Her voice growing colder with each word. “He would’ve told Gabriel. He would’ve told everyone. So, yes, I poisoned him. I made sure he wouldn’t have the chance.”
Mo’s voice cuts through the tension like a blade. “And Gabriel?”
Aubrey freezes “Gabriel was…different,” she says quietly. “He was the love of my life. My everything. But he was too good. Too honest. When someone started looking into George’s death, and Walter’s, I knew he’d find the truth. And I couldn’t…” Her voice breaks, and she presses a trembling hand to her chest. “I couldn’t let him make that choice. To prosecute me. To hate me. It would’ve destroyed him.”
“So you destroyed him instead,” I say, my voice cold.
Her head snaps toward me, her eyes blazing with a mix of anger and desperation. “I didn’t have a choice!” she cries, her voice cracking. “He would’ve hated me. He would’ve turned me in. I couldn’t let that happen!”
The tears come again, but they’re different this time. Desperate. Self-pitying.
“You killed him,” Mo says, her tone flat. “You made the choice for him.”
Aubrey’s hands shake, and she clutches them to her chest. “It wasn’t supposed to happen like that.”
Selene shakes her head, her voice cutting through the air like a whip. “You’re not a victim, Aubrey. You made these choices. And now, it’s time to face the consequences. You killed four people and hid the fact that you were pregnant. He never got the chance to know most of his family because you killed them to keep him a secret.”
The silence stretches for half a second too long before Aubrey starts to chuckle. It starts low then like out of a horror movie her laugh turns maniacal before she asks “You think you’re so smart and know everything, but you don’t even know the best part?”
Anger coursing through my veins, “The best part is when you are taken away in handcuffs.”
Shaking her head she looks into my eyes and whispers, “The best part is that they were twins.”
It’s so quiet I almost think I misheard her.
Selene takes a slow step forward. “You had twins. And you gave them up separately?”
“Why?” Mo asks, a dangerous edge creeping into her tone. “Why the hell would you do that?”
Aubrey presses her lips together, shaking her head.
My temper snaps. “What kind of sick, twisted monster are you?” I demand, my voice shaking with fury. “You trap a man with a pregnancy, murder him when he cheats on you, then rip apart two innocent children before they even had a chance? Do you even hear yourself?”
Aubrey’s mask shatters. “Don’t you dare judge me, Theo,” she snarls. “You think you’re better than me? You’re nothing. You’ll never be anything more than a pathetic little boy playing house in that cafe, trying to fill the shoes of a dead man.”
My vision goes red.
But before I can react, there’s a sharp crack of knuckles meeting bone.
Aubrey jerks backward with a strangled cry, clutching her nose as blood gushes between her fingers.
Selene stands in front of her, shaking out her fist.
Silence.
Mo lets out a low whistle. “Damn.”
Aubrey stares at Selene in disbelief, her breath hitching as blood drips onto her shirt. “You—you broke my nose, you bitch!”
Selene shakes her hand out again, her expression calm, unbothered. “Oh, sorry,” she says flatly. “I must have miscalculated.”
And just like that—watching her, standing there, fearless, ready to take on the world—then it hits me.
Fuck.
I think I’m in love with her.
This is the worst possible moment to realize
it, but there it is. Lodged in my chest like a goddamn bullet.
Aubrey glares at all of us, but there’s a new emotion in her eyes now.
Fear.
Aubrey looks up, her face pale and stricken. “It doesn’t matter though. None of this does. I can explain everything away. The town loves me. At the end of the day you have no proof,” she whispers, her voice trembling. “It’s just your word against mine.”
Before I can say anything, Mo lets out a low chuckle, shaking her head. “You don’t get it, do you?”
Aubrey blinks, her confusion evident.
Selene crosses her arms, her tone sharp. “You think we’d come here unprepared? This isn’t just us, Aubrey.”
I nod toward the tree behind me and the graves nearby. “The FBI’s been watching you for weeks. There are wires on that tree, on the stones around us. Everything you’ve said today? It’s all been recorded. Every word.”
Aubrey’s eyes widen in horror, realization dawning on her face. “No,” she breathes, shaking her head. “You didn’t—”
“We did,” Mo says, her voice sharp and final. “This was never just about us. Your son is the one that was looking into his past. He was looking into his father then you by extension. That’s who Gabriel caught looking into all those files. He didn’t know it at the time but he was uncovering the truth—and now we know it. Thanks to you.”
I watch the cracks spread across Aubrey’s mask, her carefully constructed world caving in. And for the first time, I see something genuine beneath it—not the cold, calculating woman who played us all, but a terrified person losing control. She looks at each of us, her chest heaving, her mind racing for a way out.
For a second, I expect her to run. I almost hope she does.
But then, her shoulders slump, her body folding inward like she’s suddenly too tired to fight.
“It wasn’t supposed to happen like this,” she whispers, her voice breaking. “I just…I just wanted to protect myself.”
The words are a slap in the face, and a heavy darkness churns in my gut. She’s still lying—to herself, to us. I think of Gabriel, of George, of my parents, and the countless lives she shattered to “protect herself.”
“No, Aubrey,” I say, my voice steady. “You wanted to protect your lies. And now, they’ve caught up to you.”
The sound of footsteps in the distance grows louder. The agents are moving in, closing the net around her, and still, she doesn’t seem to notice.
Aubrey’s face turns ashen. Her breaths come too fast, too shallow. I see it in her eyes—the slow, sinking realization that this is the end of the road.
She glances toward the edge of the cemetery, her eyes darting like a cornered animal, finally noticing the hulking figures coming towards us.
“You’re smart though, you planned for this, didn’t you?” Selene’s voice is low and steady, like a hunter closing in on its prey.
Aubrey doesn’t answer, but the tremor in her hands gives her away.
“All of this,” Mo adds, her tone sharp. “The sweet tea. The cookie cake. The cupcakes. The whole setup. It wasn’t just about Gabriel, was it? You were planning another move, weren’t you?”
Aubrey’s gaze snaps to Mo, her expression twisting with a mix of fury and desperation. “You don’t understand,” she spits. “I had to. You left me no choice.”
No choice.
My hands curl into fists. She says it like she’s the victim like we’re the villains in her story.
“You brought us here to poison us, didn’t you?” My voice is sharper than I intended, the weight of the accusation slamming between us.
Her silence is answer enough.
Selene steps closer, her voice cold. “Why, Aubrey? Why would you do this? You already got away with it—years of hiding your crimes, covering your tracks. So why now?”
Aubrey’s lips tremble, and for a moment, she looks almost pitiful. But then, she lifts her chin, her mask snapping back into place. “Because you wouldn’t let it go,” she snaps. “You kept digging, kept asking questions. I couldn’t trust that you’d stop. I recognized that boy the moment he showed his face at the cafe. He is the spitting image of his father. I couldn’t trust that he would stop asking questions either.”
Her gaze shifts to me and her voice softens, almost pleading. “I loved Gabriel. I loved you, Teddy. But you don’t understand what it’s like to have everything you’ve built, everything you’ve worked for, threatened. I couldn’t take that chance.”
My jaw tightens, hands curl into fists at my sides. “So your solution was to kill us?”
“I didn’t want to!” she cries, her voice breaking. “But you forced my hand. If you’d just let it go—”
“No.” Mo’s voice is sharp and unyielding, her voice slices through Aubrey’s excuses like a blade. “This was never about us forcing your hand. You made this choice, just like you made the choice to poison Gabriel, to kill George, to silence Walter. This is who you are, Aubrey.”
Aubrey’s composure crumbles, her tears streaming down her face, mixing with the blood from her broken nose, as she collapses onto the blanket. “You don’t understand,” she sobs. “I didn’t want this. I didn’t mean for it to happen this way.”
Selene takes a step closer, her eyes blazing. “You brought us here to kill us. You poisoned the sweet tea, didn’t you?”
Aubrey’s hands shake as she lifts her glass, the liquid inside catching the moonlight. “I did it for Gabriel,” she whispers, her voice trembling. “For us. I thought if I could just—”
“Stop lying,” I snap, my voice cutting through her excuses like a knife. “You didn’t do this for Gabriel. You did this for yourself.”
Aubrey’s face crumples, her sobs turning into a low, desperate laugh. “It doesn’t matter,” she says, her voice hollow. “None of this matters now. You’ve already won, haven’t you?”
She moves suddenly dropping all pretense of subtlety as she grabs the pitcher of sweet tea and downing most of it before we can rip it out of her hands.
“Stop!” I shout, lunging forward, but Aubrey’s already thrown the empty pitcher aside, her breath gasping after almost drowning herself as she chugged the contents of the pitcher. Aubrey wipes at the tea that ran down her face and her neck and chest, as she glares at me and Mo.
“You think you’ve beaten me,” she rasps, her voice trembling. “But I’ll die on my terms, not yours.”
Selene whips out her phone, already dialing. “We need help. Now.”
“No need,” a deep voice calls out from behind us. A group of figures emerges, the FBI agents finally stepping into view. Orion is in the front as he kneels beside Aubrey, a medical kit in hand.
His voice is calm and authoritative. “We came prepared.”
He pulls out a syringe and a small vial of charcoal solution, injecting it into Aubrey’s arm with practiced precision. “This will neutralize the poison,” he explains, his tone matter-of-fact. “But she’ll need further treatment at the hospital.”
Aubrey groans, her head lolling to the side as the antidote begins to take effect. Her defiance is gone, replaced by a vacant, defeated expression.
“You recorded everything,” she murmurs, her voice barely audible.
“We did,” Selene confirms, her tone cold. “And now, everyone will know the truth.”
The agents move swiftly, cuffing Aubrey and lifting her onto a stretcher. I watch as they carry her away, a strange mix of relief and exhaustion settling over me, pressing into my bones like a weight I hadn’t realized I was carrying.
It’s over.
Not the way I wanted—not with some grand, satisfying conclusion where everything makes sense—but justice doesn’t care about what I want. My parents will never come back. Gabriel will never get the peace he deserves. But at least now, she can’t hurt anyone else.
“She thought she could control everything,” Mo says quietly, her gaze fixed on the retreating figures. “But in the end, she couldn’t even control herself.”
I nod, my jaw tight as I stare after the woman who raised me. “I think she truly did love Gabriel, but she destroyed him. For what?”
Selene places a hand on his shoulder, her touch grounding. “For herself. She never loved anyone as much as she loved her secrets.”
The three of us stand there in the cemetery, the weight of the day pressing down on us. Aubrey is gone, but the scars she left behind will linger.
“She’s done now,” I say, my voice steady. “It’s over.”
For the first time, it feels like the truth.
The sound of footsteps crunching against the gravel draws our attention. A figure emerges from the shadows between the trees, his broad shoulders silhouetted against the bright sunlight.
Bennett.
His presence is different tonight. There’s always been an edge to him, a sharpness honed by years of chasing ghosts and uncovering the things people would rather keep buried. But this—this is different. His fury is quiet, controlled, and lethal.
He doesn’t glance at us. His gaze is locked on Aubrey.
Her face goes pale the moment she sees him.
“You,” she growls, facing contorting.
Bennett doesn’t stop until he’s standing right beside the stretcher. His voice is low, and dangerous when he speaks. “You thought you could erase me, didn’t you?”
Aubrey’s lips part, but no words come out.
“Didn’t expect to see me here, did you?” His voice sharpens, cutting through the stillness of the cemetery like a blade. “You gave me up the second I was born—tossed me aside like trash—and then you killed my uncle to keep it quiet. Did you think no one would ever find out?”
She glares at him, feigning innocence, “I—I don’t know what you’re talking about.”
Bennett lets out a bitter laugh, one that makes the hair on the back of my neck stand on end. “Oh, you don’t? Let me jog your memory, then.” He takes a step closer, towering over her. “I was looking into my family when I came across a DNA match on one of those genealogy sites. A match that led me to my uncle. He reached out to me—wanted to meet, to talk. But funny thing, Aubrey…he died the same day he sent me that message.”
Her face tightens, but she doesn’t respond.
“And then I started digging,” Bennett continues, his voice relentless. “Found out he wasn’t the only one who met an untimely end.”
Aubrey’s expression flickers, the mask slipping just enough to reveal a glimmer of guilt—or maybe frustration at being caught.
“You murdered them all to protect your lies,” Bennett says, his voice cracking with emotion. “You took my father from me before I ever had the chance to know him. You killed my uncle when he tried to reconnect with me. And Gabriel…” He shakes his head, his anger giving way to raw heartbreak. “He deserved so much better than you.”
Aubrey’s composure crumbles under his words. “You don’t understand,” she says, her voice shaking. “I didn’t mean for any of it to happen—”
“Don’t,” Bennett snaps, his voice cutting through her excuses like a whip. “Don’t you dare try to justify it. You didn’t ‘mean’ for it to happen? You didn’t ‘mean’ to poison my father? You didn’t ‘mean’ to kill Gabriel? Stop pretending you’re the victim in all this.”
Tears spill down her cheeks, but there’s a calculated edge to them, almost hollow.
Bennett inhales sharply, steadying himself. Then, his voice drops to a dangerous whisper. “Where is my sibling?”
Aubrey blinks, her breath hitching. “What?”
“My twin.” Bennett’s words are clipped, and measured, each one laced with barely contained rage. “The one you confessed to me having?”
Aubrey’s lips curl into a warped expression—dark, twisted, and triumphant. Her last victory.
“You’ll never find them,” she whispers.
Bennett goes still.
Aubrey tilts her head, watching him like a predator savoring its final moments of control. “You think I’d make it easy? That I’d let you have that bond George loved so much?” Her voice is almost sweet, but it drips with malice. “No, I made sure you’d never know each other. I changed the records, gave different birth dates, and used different agencies. Even if you look, you’ll never find them. Which do you want more? A brother or a sister? Do you want to be the younger one? Or the older one? You’ll never know.”
Bennett’s breathing is slow, deliberate, but I see the tension in his jaw, the barely restrained fury in the way his hands clench into fists.
Aubrey leans in as much as the restraints allow, her voice dropping to a taunting whisper. “It was my final gift to your father. His children, forever strangers.”
Something inside me twists violently at the cruelty of it. Bennett doesn’t move, but I can feel the weight of what she’s done pressing down on him.
“You’re sick,” he finally says, his voice hollow. “And you’ll die alone, just like you deserve.”
Aubrey doesn’t answer, but I see it—the flicker of hurt in her eyes. A shadow of fear.
She opens her mouth to respond, but before she can, Orion steps forward, holding up a small device. “That’s enough, Bennett,” he says, his voice firm. “We already have everything we need.”
Aubrey’s head snaps toward him, her eyes wide with realization. “What are you talking about?”
Orion smirks, tapping the device in his hand. “You already confessed to everything, we just had a few things we needed to clarify that the others didn’t get a confession to.”
Aubrey’s face goes ghostly pale, her lips parting in a silent gasp. Possibly for the first time, true panic flashes in her eyes.
Bennett steps back, his expression grim as he watches the weight of her actions finally catch up to her. “It’s over, Aubrey,” he says softly. “You can’t talk your way out of this one.”
She lets out a guttural scream, thrashing against the restraints on the stretcher. But no amount of struggling can save her now.
The sirens wail in the distance, signaling the arrival of another ambulance to take her away. As the FBI agents wheel her toward the exit, Bennett turns to us, his expression weary but resolute.
“It’s done,” he says, his voice low. “She can’t hurt anyone else now.”
None of us speak as we watch Aubrey disappear into the shadows, her cries fading into the night.
For the first time in years, the air feels lighter. Shadow Grove can finally begin to heal.