Chapter Forty-Five
"Chloe," I said.
Peyton held my gaze. "Yes. Chloe."
The name landed like a stone dropped into still water. For one beat, I couldn't process it. Then the ripples spread, reordering every assumption, every piece of evidence I assembled.
Whitney hovered a foot from her daughter, her hand rising toward Peyton's arm again, and then dropping. "Peyton, don't—"
"No." Peyton's voice was flat, final. "I'm done."
I kept my eyes locked on Peyton. "What does Chloe have to do with Taylor Everett?"
Peyton shifted, half-facing the pool. Its pristine surface rippled in the rain. Something had broken in her, some last thread of loyalty. Or fear. "Chloe came up with it. The whole thing."
Whitney made a strangled sound. "Stop. Please."
But Peyton didn't stop. The words came faster, like a dam breaking.
"She said Taylor had to go, that she was in my way.
My times were good, but Taylor's were better.
Mom had all these plans—elite scouts coming to watch, recruitment letters, everything riding on me making captain, on being number one.
Chloe said she'd help me, we could make it so Taylor didn't compete in the next meet, which meant she wouldn't be first."
"How?"
"Sedatives. Sleeping pills. I crushed them up and slipped them into her fruit punch at the pool party Mom does every year, just to make her sick enough to miss the end-of-season meet the next day.
That's all it was supposed to be. To embarrass her, too, and make her look stupid in front of everyone.
It was supposed to be funny. How was I supposed to know what it would do to her?
Or that she'd be so out of it she'd fall in the pool and like, forget how to swim. "
The air felt thinner, deprived of oxygen. I couldn't get a full breath. I glanced at the blue water shimmering in the rain. This very pool is where Taylor Everett nearly died. Where she was permanently brain-damaged from lack of oxygen.
My stomach heaved. I couldn't afford to be sick. Not here. Not now. "Where did you get the pills?"
"Alexis got them. Her mom has bottles of everything. Uppers, downers. Meds for anxiety, for sleep, for pain. Alexis sells them sometimes, at school. Her mom is so drunk most of the time that she doesn't even notice what's missing. Chloe paid her for half a bottle of lorazepam."
I thought of the prescription bottle in Whitney's trash, Brooke's name on the label. Everything connected. "What happened?"
"Taylor started acting weird. Dizzy, confused.
We thought it was hilarious. She was stumbling around, slurring her words.
Then she wandered toward the pool. The music was loud, and everyone was distracted.
The adults were drinking like they always do, gossiping by the lounge chairs.
The dads were grilling. It happened so fast that no one saw it.
She fell into the deep end. She hit her head on the side of the pool and just…
drifted down to the bottom. By the time Chloe saw her and screamed, she'd been under for like four minutes or something.
Leah's dad pulled her out and called the ambulance. Mrs. Everett wouldn't stop screaming."
I closed my eyes. They'd laughed. While Taylor stumbled and slurred, disoriented and vulnerable, these girls had found it amusing. Entertainment at a pool party while the adults sipped wine twenty feet away.
"She was in the hospital for a week, in a coma. She's basically like a zombie now. Chloe told me that if I told anyone, we'd both go down. But it would be worse for me because I was the one who gave Taylor the drink. I had the motive. Everyone would believe it was my idea."
Whitney stood frozen, her face gray. Not shocked. Not horrified at the confession, but chagrined that I knew, not that it had happened.
Peyton sneered. "Mom paid them off and made them sign papers, an NDA, so they wouldn't sue us. They moved away, like, two weeks later."
"Peyton, please." Whitney's lips pressed into a thin bloodless line. She refused to meet my eyes, but she didn't deny it. We were past that point. "It was standard. Our lawyers recommended it," she attempted weakly, wringing her hands.
We both knew she was full of it.
Whitney had known. Maybe not the precise mechanics—who crushed the pills, whose hand tipped the cup—but she'd known enough. That her daughter had done something terrible. Instead of accountability, instead of facing it, she'd opened her checkbook and made a family disappear.
I'd envied her. Her confidence, her belonging, her effortless authority in this community. I'd wanted Mia to have what Peyton had. How could I not have seen who she truly was?
"Peyton, that's enough." Whitney's spine went rigid like she was bracing for a blow. Or preparing to give one. "You're exposing us to potential lawsuits—"
"Shut up!" Peyton's gaze was cold with fury. "You thought I did it, didn't you, Mom? You thought I was guilty this whole time!"
"No, of course not. I'm only trying to protect you. That's all I've ever done."
Peyton gave a harsh laugh. "Not me. You had to cover it up for yourself and your precious reputation. God forbid anyone in this family was less than perfect."
Whitney looked stricken. Her hand fluttered at her throat.
"It was Chloe's idea to bully Leah." Peyton turned to me with a smug, satisfied smirk. Her confession was to spite her mother. The more agitated Whitney became, the more Peyton revealed.
I could work with that. "Tell me about the bullying."
"Leah was so annoying, so clingy, so needy.
She wanted to be around us all the freaking time.
Chloe's mom had hired Leah to help tutor Chloe, but Chloe basically had Leah write her papers and do her math homework for her.
Chloe needed her around, but she despised her.
Chloe had to be nice to her face because of her mom being friends with Leah's mom, so she had this account she used to make fun of Leah anonymously. "
I swallowed, fighting back the indignation, the anger, the sorrow. I had to focus. I dug my nails into my palms to keep my thoughts clear. "The LakeshoreTea handle. That was Chloe, too."
Peyton nodded. "She made the Instagram account to tear apart any girl she didn't like.
Which was like, everyone but us, pretty much.
It started with Taylor in sixth grade. Chloe likes manipulating people, to pick a girl and torture her.
To see if she can get everyone in school to join in, too.
They always do. It's a game she plays when she's bored. She's bored a lot."
"And the rest of you went along with it? Alexis and Zara, too?"
Peyton gave a dismissive shrug. "They didn't know Chloe started the Instagram account. She kept that tight because of what happened last year. Only I knew, because she knew I'd never tell after what happened to Taylor. But the rest, yeah. They knew. It wasn't, like, that bad."
"Wasn't that bad?" I said, incredulous. Fresh rage surged through me. I thought of Mia's crumpled form in her bed, her devastation when her friends turned on her, the sheer cruelty of LakeshoreTea. I could have strangled Peyton for what she'd done to hurt my child.
"It was just fun, okay? Some girls are too sensitive and get all offended." Peyton frowned, defensive again. "No one really got hurt."
I struggled to rein in my anger. "Until they did."
"That's not my fault, okay? It's all Chloe. It's always Chloe. It was Chloe's idea to do the break-ins, too. To rattle Mia. To scare her. To make sure she knew we could get to her anytime we wanted. She had me do her dirty work, though."
Things were becoming clearer. Despite Peyton's denials, she'd been eager to violate my home, to steal and mutilate our things. I could see it in her face, her whole defiant demeanor, but I had more important things to focus on now.
"What happened at the slumber party? Did Leah find out about Taylor and threaten to tell? Everyone would know. You would've been expelled from school, probably kicked off the swim team."
Peyton's expression darkened. "Leah did find out, okay?
But it wasn't like that. Leah found Chloe's burner phone that she used to run the Instagram account and post stuff.
That night, when the rest of us were getting ready for the photoshoot in the downstairs bathroom, Chloe went back up to her room, and Leah followed her, to find proof, I guess.
She was always quiet and sneaky like that.
Chloe told me later that Leah saw Chloe uploading a post on the burner phone.
She had it out for us. She was going to tell people. "
It was all making terrible sense. That explained why the police didn't find anything incriminating on any of the girls' phones. "I thought Leah reconciled with you guys at the slumber party."
Peyton shrugged. "Leah always wanted to be one of us.
Chloe used that to get Leah to change her mind about outing us.
Chloe came up with the idea to accept Leah into the group, like Leah always wanted.
All she had to do was turn on Mia at the slumber party.
Chloe thought it'd be hilarious to watch their friendship implode right in front of us. "
My vision tunneled. For a moment, I couldn't breathe.
Mia's worst night, the night that had broken something fundamental in her soul, that had devastated her whole being, had been orchestrated. A game. A social experiment to see if Chloe could turn best friends against each other for sport.
And it had worked. Leah had chosen belonging over loyalty. She had willingly hurt Mia to earn a place at the table. And Mia had been gutted and bewildered, hurt and angry. Just like Chloe wanted.
Chloe had set the stage for what led to everything that followed. The fight. The fall. The murder. She'd wound them up like toys and watched them destroy each other.
And then she'd walked into my house with roses.
The planted rock.
It must have been Chloe.