10 #2
“Not me?”
“I don’t know who you are right now.”
Bart stood near the broken barrier.
Ocean wind pulled at his shirt.
Jamal stopped several feet away.
“Come back.”
“You would save me.”
“Yes.”
“Of course.”
“Bart.”
“You need to be the good one.”
“I need nobody else to die.”
Bart smiled faintly.
“Then come get me.”
Jamal knew it was a trap.
Every warning aligned.
Cleo.
His father.
His mother.
The disabled phones.
The staged video.
The cliff.
But Bart stood one step from death.
Jamal moved closer.
“Give me your hand.”
Bart extended it.
Jamal reached.
Their fingers locked.
For one second, Bart looked like the fourteen-year-old boy who had saved him a seat in the cafeteria.
Then Bart pulled.
Jamal’s foot slid across loose stone.
He caught himself.
Bart pulled again.
Jamal released his hand and stepped backward.
“You tried to drag me over.”
Bart rushed him.
They collided.
Jamal grabbed his shoulders.
Bart drove forward.
The edge broke beneath them.
Jamal shifted his weight and threw Bart sideways onto stable ground.
The movement saved Bart.
It placed Jamal closer to the drop.
Bart looked up.
Jamal extended a hand.
“Get up.”
Bart took it.
Jamal pulled.
Bart rose.
Then Bartholomew Jefferson placed both hands against Jamal Freeman’s chest and shoved.
It was not an accident.
Not a struggle misunderstood later.
Not a frightened movement.
A deliberate push.
Jamal stepped backward.
The ground disappeared.
His eyes widened.
For one second, he remained upright against the night sky.
Then he fell.
Lauren screamed.
Madison shouted his name.
Cameron ran toward the edge.
Peter dropped to his knees.
The ocean swallowed the sound before the group could understand its finality.
Bart stood with his arms extended.
His face looked empty.
Sirens stopped at the villa.
Voices echoed through the trail.
Cleo’s name lit Jamal’s phone where it rested near the rocks.
Incoming call.
The screen vibrated against the stone.
Nobody answered.
Lauren crawled toward the edge.
“Jamal!”
Black water moved below.
No body surfaced.
Madison grabbed the camera.
Bart turned.
His eyes moved toward it.
“Give me that.”
She backed away.
“It recorded you.”
“Give it to me.”
“No.”
Chase seized her from behind.
The camera fell.
Bart stamped on it.
Plastic cracked.
Madison screamed.
He kicked it again.
Cameron stared.
“You killed him.”
Bart looked toward him.
“No.”
“We saw you.”
“He attacked me.”
“You pushed him.”
“He lost his balance.”
Lauren rose shakily.
“You murdered him.”
Bart faced her.
“You wanted him.”
“That does not matter.”
“It is the reason.”
“No. You are the reason.”
Bart grabbed her wrist.
She flinched.
“Listen to me.”
“Do not touch me.”
“You slipped. Jamal pulled you up. Then he attacked me.”
Lauren stared.
“I will tell them everything.”
Bart looked at Chase.
Chase understood.
He moved between Lauren and the trail.
Cameron stepped forward.
“Let her go.”
Bart turned toward him.
“You helped plan this.”
“Not murder.”
“Do you think police will separate the parts?”
Peter began shaking.
“I want to leave.”
“No one leaves until we agree.”
Sirens echoed closer.
Flashlights moved through the palms.
Bart spoke quickly.
“Jamal became angry after we confronted him about the medallion and Lauren. He attacked Chase in the bedroom. He dragged Lauren toward the cliff. I followed to stop him.”
Lauren stared in disbelief.
“You tied my wrists.”
“The scarf came loose from your dress.”
“It is knotted.”
“You panicked.”
Madison knelt over the broken camera.
“The memory card.”
Bart looked down.
A small black rectangle rested beneath a cracked piece.
Madison covered it with her hand.
Chase grabbed her wrist.
She resisted.
Bart stepped closer.
“Give it to me.”
“No.”
“Your father owes Jefferson Capital eleven million dollars.”
Madison froze.
“That has nothing to do with me.”
“It becomes due tomorrow.”
Her fingers loosened.
Bart took the card.
Cameron watched.
“You planned for everybody.”
“I understand incentives.”
“You just killed Jamal.”
Bart’s face twisted.
“Stop saying that.”
“You pushed him.”
“He was going to destroy my life.”
“So you took his?”
Bart looked toward the cliff.
For one second, horror entered.
Then survival buried it.
“He slipped.”
Peter whispered, “We all saw.”
Bart faced them.
“No. We all saw Jamal become violent.”
Lauren shook her head.
“I won’t lie.”
“You will if you want your cousin to avoid prison.”
She looked at Chase.
Chase raised his bruised arm.
“He attacked me.”
“You broke into his room.”
Bart continued.
“Cameron, your father’s contract.”
Cameron closed his eyes.
“Peter, your mother’s foundation.”
Peter began crying.
“Madison, the loan.”
She looked at the crushed camera.
“Chase, family.”
Bart turned toward Lauren.
“And you.”
“What about me?”
“You wanted Jamal. You arranged to go into his room. If the truth comes out, the entire world says you caused two men to fight over you. Your parents will make sure they blame you privately while defending you publicly.”
Lauren stared.
Bart stepped closer.
“Or Jamal became unstable. He was under pressure. Valedictorian. Athlete. Scholarship expectations. Maybe Cleo was jealous. Maybe he and Lauren argued. Maybe he drank.”
“He never drank,” Lauren said.
Bart looked at the bottles.
“Then pour some into his room.”
The others stared.
Bart’s voice hardened.
“You think truth protects you because Jamal always believed it would. Look where that got him.”
The flashlights neared.
A man shouted from the trail.
“Saint Aurelia Police!”
Bart dropped the memory card into his pocket.
“Choose now.”
Lauren looked toward the ocean.
Nothing moved except waves.
Jamal Freeman—the smartest student in the school, the valedictorian, the star athlete, the young leader who believed character could survive any room—was gone.
Bart stood before the others.
Their silence arrived one person at a time.
Cameron first.
Then Peter.
Madison lowered her eyes.
Chase had already chosen.
Lauren remained.
Bart whispered, “They will believe all of us before they believe a dead Black boy.”
Lauren looked at him.
That sentence decided her.
Not in the way Bart intended.
She nodded slowly.
He mistook it for surrender.
Police emerged from the trail.
Detective Elena Marquez led them.
Her flashlight crossed Lauren’s bound wrists, Cameron’s pale face, Madison’s broken camera, and Bart’s torn shirt.
“Where is Jamal Freeman?” she asked.
Bart looked toward the cliff.
His expression collapsed into practiced shock.
“He attacked me.”
Marquez repeated the question.
“Where is Jamal?”
Bart pointed toward the water.
“He fell.”
Lauren closed her eyes.
Madison began crying.
Cameron stared at the ground.
Peter whispered a prayer.
Chase held his injured arm.
Detective Marquez approached the edge.
“What happened?”
Bart answered first.
“He became violent.”
Lauren opened her mouth.
Bart looked at her.
She saw the warning.
She also saw Jamal standing at the banquet, telling a room full of people that someone else shining did not diminish them.
She heard him rejecting her because loyalty was a choice.
She felt his hand holding her above the cliff.
She remembered Bart’s palms against Jamal’s chest.
Lauren looked at Detective Marquez.
“Bart pushed him.”
The entire group turned.
Bart’s face emptied.
Lauren raised her bound wrists.
“He tied me. Jamal saved me. Bart pushed him.”
“Lauren,” Chase warned.
She shouted louder.
“He murdered Jamal!”
Detective Marquez signaled officers.
Bart stepped backward.
“This is not true.”
Cameron began crying.
“It is.”
Bart looked at him.
Cameron continued.
“He pushed him.”
Peter covered his face.
“Yes.”
Madison pointed toward Bart’s pocket.
“The memory card is on him.”
Bart reached for it.
An officer grabbed his arm.
He struggled.
“I did not kill him!”
Lauren looked toward the cliff.
“Yes, you did.”
Detective Marquez removed the card from his pocket.
Bart’s knees weakened.
The lie had lasted less than five minutes.
It would still grow larger than truth.
Because Harrison Jefferson’s attorney arrived before the search boats.
Because Bart stopped speaking the moment his father called.
Because Chase changed his statement first.
Because Madison’s camera card had been damaged beneath Bart’s shoe.
Because Cameron’s father reminded him of consequences.
Because Peter’s mother cried about his future.
Because Lauren’s family told her attraction made her unreliable.
By sunrise, the group had separated into competing versions.
By noon, lawyers had turned murder into uncertainty.
By evening, the private plane returned seven students to Charlotte.
Jamal remained in the ocean.