Chapter Fifty-Two Lily
CHAPTER FIFTY-TWO
Lily
W hen I saw the look in Lorenzo’s eyes, I knew I wasn’t mentally prepared for this conversation, but I didn’t realize how unequipped I was until he begins talking.
“Trevor killed my parents.”
“Trevor…Ludlow?” I ask, too shocked by the news to fully process it the first time.
He nods.
The faint ringing sound in my ears grows louder as I mentally spiral. In my head, ten different questions pop up, none of which make it past my parted lips.
Lorenzo begins pacing the space in front of the bed. “He was out late, drinking at some bonfire with all his friends.”
Even though I know how this story ends, my throat still closes up like someone wrapped their hand around my neck.
Lorenzo continues walking back and forth, his body riddled with tension, and his hands visibly shaking.
“Trevor could’ve walked home if he wanted to.
He lived that close to the beach where he and his buddies were drinking.
But no, he decided to drive like an entitled, reckless brat who thinks they’re untouchable. ”
Thankfully I’m not standing because I’m hit with a dizzy spell. I concentrate on Lorenzo, as if I’m lost at sea and he is my horizon.
“If he were my friend, I would’ve stolen the keys straight from his hands, but clearly Trevor was surrounded by all the wrong ones.
Or maybe they tried to block him from driving, but they clearly didn’t try hard enough because who tells a Ludlow what to do?
” The bitterness in his tone isn’t directed at me, but it feels like it with how harshly Lorenzo speaks.
“No one,” I murmur.
He nods, the movement short and stiff. “So, he drove, and still to this day, I’m not sure where he was going because he ended up on the opposite side of town—” His sentence ends with the break in his voice.
“No.” Acid crawls up my throat at an alarming rate.
“If he drove straight home… If he paid attention to where he was going, my parents might still be here today. No, I’m sure they would be because Trevor wouldn’t have hit them. He could’ve gone home and slept it off, and my parents would’ve never ended up dying in a ditch.”
He whispers the next part, sounding more like the ten-year-old child who lost his parents than a bitter adult with a score to settle. “They would’ve come back home to me .”
I don’t notice I’m crying until Daisy starts licking my face.
“For a while, before I found out the truth, I blamed my parents.” He looks down with shame. “Why did they insist on driving the sick dog to the vet in the middle of the night? Why couldn’t they wait until morning?
“The dog didn’t even make it. Not because of the accident, which he miraculously survived, but from kidney complications.” His pain is a living, breathing entity, and I absorb it like my own.
With an experience like that, I’m surprised he wanted to adopt Daisy.
Because he wanted her for you.
Daisy butts her head against my chest, and I wrap my arms around her neck while wishing I could hug Lorenzo instead. Something tells me he needs to get this out without any interruption, so I hold off.
“Eventually I learned the truth about everything that happened, and it made me sick.” The words tumble out of him without any pause, and he isn’t the only one who feels sickened by the news. “Trevor called his dad first. Can you believe that? Not 911, but his dad .”
My heart pumps furiously in my chest.
Lorenzo shakes his head with disgust. “And then the mayor called his brother, who was a deputy at the time.”
I’m so disgusted by the entire cover-up, I can’t begin to describe how I feel about it, but I think my expression must do the job because Lorenzo frowns when he turns to look at me.
“It was more than an abuse of power. It was…”
“One of the most awful things a person can do,” I answer.
His voice drops. “I’ll never know if they could’ve gotten help in time, and that’s what haunts me most. It keeps me up at night sometimes, thinking about their last moments and whether they were bleeding out in front of each other, praying for help but never getting it.”
I’m full-on sobbing by this point.
“How did you…” I can’t even finish the sentence because it’s too horrible. To think that not only did Trevor Ludlow kill Lorenzo’s parents but then tried to cover up the crime?
Absolutely unforgivable.
“How did I what?” Lorenzo asks softly. “Find out about everything?”
I nod with tears streaming down my face.
“I hired one of the best private investigators in the nation to get to the bottom of the case. His methods were expensive but effective.”
“And he connected it back to Trevor?”
“Yeah. There were too many coincidences to ignore.”
“How did your PI figure out it was him of all people?”
A dark look passes over his face.
I don’t like it, so I ask, “What?”
“Will you take my word for it when I say that I’m certain I have the right guy?”
“You don’t want to tell me,” I state, not sure how to feel about that.
“Only because it wasn’t legal.”
“What did you do? Break into the mayor’s house?” I laugh it off, only for the sound to die halfway out of my mouth at the serious look on Lorenzo’s face.
His lips press together. “Not exactly…”
“You know what? I’d rather not know.”
“I thought so.” Some of the tension in his shoulders loosens.
“But if you have evidence, why not come out with it?”
“Michigan has a ten-year statute of limitations for manslaughter, so even if I wanted to, I couldn’t.”
My heart sinks. “Fine, but you could tell everyone and prevent him from becoming mayor, right?” There has to be something Lorenzo can do.
He halts his pacing and sits on the edge of the bed, between me and Daisy, with one hand on my calf and the other on our dog.
“Not without admitting my own crimes, I can’t. It isn’t worth the risk, and it would be challenging for people to accept illegally obtained evidence anyway.”
My idea of forcing Trevor to leave town dies. “Oh.”
He offers me a reassuring smile, as if I’m the one who needs comfort, not him, the man running for mayor against the person who killed his parents.
The same man he would have to see for the rest of his life should he choose to stay here because of me .
An arc of pain shoots through me.
“What?” he asks, searching for whatever caused my pinched expression.
“If you lose…” It wouldn’t affect him because of his ego like I had falsely assumed but because he would lose to the person who took already took everything away from him.
Of course he can’t live here if that happens, in a town where people let him down yet again.
His gaze flickers across my face, and wrinkles of concern appear across his forehead. “Don’t worry about that.”
“How can I not?”
“Because we have five weeks left and I finally caught up to him in the polls.”
“He killed your parents, Lorenzo. That’s...” My eyes burn from unshed tears. “I completely understand why you don’t want to stay, and I would never ask you to.” I look down at my lap in shame. “I wish you’d told me sooner.” The last sentence comes out as a whisper.
I would’ve never given him such a hard time about leaving if I had known, and the guilt is eating me alive. “I’m sorry for treating you the way I did—”
“You’re not allowed to blame yourself.” He scoots me over and pulls me into his arms. “You didn’t know because I didn’t want you to, so anything you said or any way you acted was completely justified.”
I nestle deeper into his chest and mumble the words that have been lying on the tip of my tongue. “If you lose, you shouldn’t stay.”
His arms wrapped around me stiffen. “I am.”
“No.” I fight like hell not to cry. “You can’t.” I won’t let him, which is why I say, “There are other towns nearby where we can have a fresh start.”
“We?”
“Yeah, we . Do you have a problem with that?”
He looks at me like he isn’t sure what to do with me.
Same .
He shakes his head.
“Good,” I say. “Then let’s focus on winning and take it from there.” I hope to change the subject with a quick pat on his chest.
He kisses the top of my head before reaching for the remote. “What are you in the mood for?”
“Something happy, please.”
He flips through the channels before landing on a nineties comedy about a girl with a computer-operated closet full of amazing outfits and an interest in playing matchmaker for two teachers.
“The things I would do for a closet like that,” I say as I watch the blonde girl pick out her outfit for the day.
He smirks. “That could be arranged.”
“Speaking of closets…” I tilt my head back so I can look up at him. “When are we going to talk about yours?”
He raises the volume like an ass.
“I saw all the clothes,” I speak louder.
“Mm-hmm,” he replies.
“Were you planning on showing me anytime soon?”
“Not until you told me you love me.”
“Why?”
“I’m not interested in buying your love. Where’s the fun in that?”
“I already love you, so that’s not possible.”
He rolls on top of me, keeping most of his weight off me. “Say it again.”
“I love you.”
He claims my mouth like he does my heart, an unapologetic takeover of my mind, body, and soul.
“Again,” he says after breaking away.
“Te amo.” I brush the hair out of his eyes.
“Anch’io ti amo, amore mio.”
“I know, baby.” Which is why I’ll never let him go, not now that I know for sure he loves me back.
Wherever Lorenzo goes, I will follow, whether it be a few towns over or across the world.
Plus if Trevor wins, I don’t want to stay here anyway for multiple reasons, but most of all because I could never put Lorenzo through that kind of pain.
He shouldn’t have to choose between the woman he loves and his own mental health, and I won’t allow him to.
It will be hard, but I can restart anywhere, so long as it’s with him.
“Well, well,” Dahlia says the next morning, scaring the shit out of me as we both sneak back into the house at the same time.
She gives me a quick pass. “From the state of your hair and makeup, I take it Lorenzo finally cleared up a few of your issues?”
I blush. “Shut up.”
“Oh, no. I’m going to keep pestering until you spill some deets.”
I’m tempted to ignore her as I head to the kitchen, but that’ll only encourage her. “Not much to share.”
“You spent all night together, and based on the bags under your eyes, I don’t think you did much sleeping.” She waggles her brows.
“I hate you.” I grab a protein bar from the pantry.
“I’m only saying…” She smiles.
“Yes, we talked things out and we’re finally in agreement on a few things. Does that satisfy your curiosity?”
“Come on. Give me a little more than that.” She bats her lashes, and I reluctantly concede to her request.
“We talked about our future.”
Her grin widens. “And?”
I glance away for this next part. “If he loses, we’re going to move.”
“What?” she whisper-shouts. “You can’t leave! Not when I moved back here.”
I make a face. “I love him, Dahlia, so if he wants to go, then I’ll follow him.”
“Why isn’t he willing to stay if he loses?”
I can’t tell her about his past without his permission, and honestly I doubt I’ll ever ask for it. That’s Lorenzo’s story to tell, and if he doesn’t want to, I’m not going to pressure him into doing so.
Instead I say, “I don’t want to stay here if Trevor wins either.”
Let her think it’s because Trevor wants to tear down my business and Richard is an ass, which, while important, aren’t the deciding factors.
Lorenzo is.
Dahlia raises her chin. “Then we need to make sure Lorenzo wins.”
“ We? ”
She nods. “I’m not going to let my baby sister and her man get run out of the town they love.”
“And how are you going to do that?”
She cracks a smile I’m way too familiar with. In my experience, it can either end with the best results or temporary jail time.
I have no idea what Dahlia has planned, but I can only hope it leads to promising results because the campaign and my future in Lake Wisteria are counting on it.