Chapter 58 Piper
FIFTY-EIGHT
Piper
“When did Danny contact you?” I asked.
“Couple months ago. It started with phone calls. Once he realized I already knew my dad was your father, he figured I was hooked. He didn’t admit until later, after I asked for his alleged proof, that he didn’t have the jewelry box in hand.”
It was bizarre to think Danny had known the identity of my real father and kept it to himself.
Had he found that jewelry box at my mom’s house after she died? He could’ve seen this “proof” about my parentage then. But why wouldn’t he take the box right away?
Everything had been pretty chaotic in those days. Planning the funeral, trying to pack up my mom’s stuff. I’d stuffed most everything in the basement to deal with later. Maybe Danny had assumed he could find that box later, too. If he ever decided to make use of it.
And now, years later, Danny had done just that. He hadn’t paid child support in six months. He’d somehow gotten himself into dire financial trouble and decided to use this knowledge about me to his advantage. To blackmail the Kirby family with Mr. Kirby’s dirty secret.
But that jewelry box was nowhere to be found.
“Does Dillon know?” I asked.
“I told him about you after Danny contacted me. I didn’t want Danny to get to him first. Dillon was upset, because he’d admired our dad. But he already liked you. He started working for you with no idea what you’d done to our family.”
Heat flared again in my face. I hadn’t done a thing to them.
But it didn’t seem like Dillon had judged me the way Zach did. If anything, he’d been more friendly over the last couple months. More protective of me.
Because he knew I was his older sister.
“Did you plant the fake drugs at Grayden’s house?”
Zach waved a hand dismissively. “Dillon’s friend Chad came up with the idea.”
“Officer Bronski.” That jerk. He’d helped set Grayden up?
“Chad didn’t like Grayden coming back to town, given his criminal record. Dillon didn’t like that Grayden had been hanging around you.”
Which was why Grayden assumed Dillon had a crush on me. I’d known that was ridiculous. But not the true reason why.
“I agreed to help them set up their little stunt to make Grayden look bad. Put doubts in your mind about him. But really, I wanted a look at your mom’s old house. By then, Danny had admitted he didn’t have the jewelry box, but he claimed you’d taken it.”
“If I’d had it, wouldn’t I have discovered the truth about my mom and your dad?”
Zach wiped a hand over his face. “I don’t fucking know, okay? Your ex-husband clearly thinks he’s smarter than the rest of us. He thought you couldn’t figure it out so easily.”
That definitely tracked. Danny was arrogant enough to believe it.
What was inside that box? A secret compartment? A note written in code?
“That day, meeting Grayden, I realized he had a thing for you.” Zach shrugged. “The moment he saw the drug package, he blamed Danny. So the rest was pretty clear. What I should do.”
So he took the sweatshirt from Grayden’s place. And it had to be Zach who’d broken into my garage. He’d stolen Ollie’s knife. And then…
“I offered Danny ten thousand dollars to go away and leave us alone,” Zach said. “But that wasn’t enough for him. He wanted more. Even after he failed to produce the proof from this mysterious jewelry box, he still demanded more.”
Zach glanced over at me.
“You should be grateful to me,” he added. “If Danny hadn’t survived, he’d be out of the picture. You’d be free of him.”
Chills sheeted my skin. Zach was talking openly about trying to kill Danny.
“But you tried to frame me and Grayden for it.”
He turned away and stared at the half-destroyed house again. “Had to have somebody to blame. You and Grayden made sense. Why the hell not you?”
“Then why come to me today? Why ask about the jewelry box? Nobody knew what you’d done to Danny.”
“Because there was still the risk you had the box. And maybe I just wanted to look in your eyes and see if you knew the truth. If you had any idea how much you’d destroyed, just by existing.”
He was going to kill me. Really, I’d known it all along. But fear and confusion had kept me here, frozen. The hatred in Zach’s eyes, making me desperate to know why. As if listening to him, hearing every cruel thing, would somehow defuse his anger.
Same way I used to listen to my dad’s hurtful words and just take it. Or my mom’s. Or Danny’s. But that wasn’t the real me. I was strong. I’d always been so much more than what any of them said about me.
No. More.
I couldn’t sit here and wait for the worst to happen.
Balling my right fist, I swung. My knuckles connected with Zach’s nose, and he screamed.
I lunged for the door handle, pawing at the lock to get it open. Then I was outside, sprinting through the cold winter air. The scent of pine was sweet in my nose, but underneath, I imagined there was something darker. A hint of old charred wood.
I ran.
Footsteps pounded behind me. A few moments later, Zach’s stocky body crashed into me, sending me sprawling in a patch of dead grass. The impact knocked the wind from my lungs.
Zach pinned me down. He rolled me over, and his face was a mask of cruel rage.
“Why do you hate me so much?” I said, struggling to speak. “I never did anything to you.”
“Because it’s your fault she’s dead! I knew Dad was in the house, but Jeanine wasn’t supposed to be there. She wasn’t supposed to get hurt!”
Shock turned me numb, all the way down to my bones.
Zach looked shocked too. As if he hadn’t expected to confess any of that.
“You started the fire,” I said as the truth dawned on me.
He kneeled over me, holding my wrists. A tear rolled down Zach’s cheek and splashed onto my skin.
“I was so pissed off at my father. Wanted to punish him for cheating on my mom. So I went in the garage. Used my cigarette to ignite some greasy rags I’d shoved under his car. I didn’t know the fire would spread so fast.”
He sat back, letting go of me. His dark eyes were filled with horror, and I couldn’t bring myself to look away.
“The fire spread to the house. Later, they said Dad was drunk. He must’ve been drinking after Frank Landry left. He didn’t realize what was happening. And I didn’t know…I swear, I didn’t know…”
I started edging away from him. Slowly at first. I didn’t want to startle Zach, but it seemed like his mind was a world away.
“Jeanine had come back early from her friend’s house. She was asleep inside. If I knew, I would’ve gotten her out. I would never have started the fire. I swear. I loved my big sister.”
I got up, ready to run again, and Zach caught the movement.
“You should’ve died, Piper, not her. You never should’ve been born.”
He launched himself at me. Caught hold of my sweater. We spun as I tried to shove him away from me.
Only then did I realize we were heading toward the steep slope of the drop-off. Where the mountainside fell away.