Chapter 28 Gwen #2
“See?” I turned back to Edwards and Mitchell.
“Don’t listen to her dad. He doesn’t know her.
He doesn’t give a shit about her. If he did, he would’ve never let her date that grown ass man when she was just a little girl.
He would’ve opened his doors when she showed up with a black eye.
You can’t just ignore this. You can’t just let this asshole get away with murdering her. ”
“We’re definitely going to look into all of the possibilities.” Mitchell frowned. “But thank you for all your help. Both of you. I’m sorry to meet under such poor circumstances. We just wanted to make sure you guys were aware.”
“No,” I said, shaking my head as he took a step toward the door. “No, please. Everyone ignored her. Everyone ignored what Evan was doing to her. Nobody cared. Nobody helped her.” My voice cracked. “Please. Please don’t let him get away with killing her. Please.”
His frown only grew tighter lipped. He gave a curt nod, exchanging a look with Edwards as he approached the door.
Once it shut behind him, and Edwards stood, I stood with him. “I’m not in denial, Edwards. I’m not.”
“I believe you,” he said, eyes still gentle. “And I’ll keep looking. But I’m an officer. I’m not a detective. I barely know Mitchell, so I don’t have pull with him. And if we can’t find evidence that supports this theory—”
“It’s there,” I said. “It’s gotta be. Delilah wouldn’t have killed herself.”
He gave my shoulder a squeeze. “I’ll keep looking. You just hang in there, alright?”
He said that like I had any other choice.
“I’m sorry again, Rhiannon,” Edwards said, heading for the door. “If you find anything that might be important—”
“Yeah, yeah. I have your number.” Rubbing a hand down her jaw, she couldn’t so much as look at him. “Thank you for letting me know.”
When the door clicked shut, I turned her way. “You don’t think I’m crazy, do you? Because I just can’t see it. I can’t. Delilah is happy, and bubbly, and—they’re wrong. They’ve gotta be wrong.”
“I don’t think you’re crazy.” She swatted at a tear that escaped her eye. “You’re probably right. They’re probably wrong.”
“Then why are you so calm?” Baffled, I scanned her for some sign that I was misunderstanding her body language. “Why didn’t you argue with them?”
A humorless laugh escaped, ending with a clear of her throat. “You did that for me, don’t you think?”
“But he didn’t believe me,” I said. “That detective, he didn’t believe me.”
“We’re used to that, aren’t we?” She swallowed hard. “Not being believed.”
A deep, visceral pain reverberated through my chest, like a horse had just kicked me.
Rhiannon shook her head and shut her eyes. “I’m sorry. I still need to process this myself and I shouldn’t talk about it until I do.” She placed a gentle hand on my arm. “Are you okay? Do you need a ride up to your cabin?”
I bit my now quivering lip. “I’m okay.”
Before she could respond, I was heading for the door.
“If you need to talk—”
“I have your number,” I said under my breath.
I couldn’t remember the conversation we’d had last night.
Ever since I walked out the rec center doors, I replayed seeing Delilah at dinner in the cafeteria last night.
Before my eyes, I could see the snow. I recognized that it was cold, that my nose and hands were going numb.
I didn’t feel it though. I didn’t feel much of anything, aside from confusion and a general sense of distortion.
The world around me looked as it always did, but it didn’t feel right.
It was like I was detached from my body, stuck in that memory of last night at dinner while I walked on autopilot.
It had become routine. If I wasn’t eating out with Sebastian, then me, Delilah, Simone, and Junie ate dinner at one of our homes or the cafeteria. I saw Delilah every day. She was my friend, quickly becoming my best friend alongside Simone.
Who made distinctive notes of every conversation they’d had with each of their friends? I hadn’t realized it would be the last one. Even now, I couldn’t believe that it had been the last one.
What the hell had we talked about?
Had she looked sad? No. No, I remembered that we were all happy. We were laughing, and picking off each other’s plates, and talking about…
What the hell had we talked about?
Beep-beep!
Headlights came toward me. Was I walking on the road? Did they have enough room to pass?
I stepped further from the gravel into the snow, but the car slowed. Once it was beside me, it halted.
“I know you like to get your steps in and everything.” Simone. Simone was in the car. “But it’s, like, eight degrees out here. Do you need a ride?”
It was thoughtless. I yanked open the passenger side door, and I sat.
“You going up to your place?”
All I did was stare ahead. What was I supposed to say? How could I break this to her gently?
“Hello?” Laughing, Simone waved her hand in front of my face. “Anybody in there?”
“Delilah’s dead.” Why it left my lips that way, I couldn’t say.
“What?” The overhead lights in the car began to dim, and Simone smacked them back on.
My eyes started to adjust. Simone gently grabbed my face and turned me toward her.
She whispered, “What did you just say?”
“Delilah’s dead.” The hot sting of a tear burned down my frozen cheek. “The cops just came to talk to Rhiannon and she had me talk to them too. They say she killed herself, but I know she didn’t. I know she didn’t kill herself. It was her ex. It had to have been her ex.”
Shifting the car into park, Simone’s mouth dropped open. She covered it with a shaking hand. “Oh my God.”
“I can’t remember what we talked about last night.” I rubbed my temples. “I didn’t think it was gonna be the last time I talked to her. Everything was normal. Everything was fine. But now I can’t remember the last thing we said to each other. What did I say to her?”
“College,” Simone murmured, eyes falling to her lap. “She was talking about college. How excited she was to start the spring semester.”
“See?” Shaking my head furiously, my voice raised, cracking over every word.
“She was happy. She was planning for her future. Last night at dinner, we were all happy. She didn’t leave that dinner and kill herself.
I know she didn’t. But he didn’t believe me.
The detective, Mitchell, I think, he didn’t believe me.
Edwards said that he would keep looking into it, but the detective didn’t believe me, and Edwards is just an officer, and—and—I can’t believe this. I can’t believe she’s gone.”
“You’re right,” Simone murmured. “She wouldn’t have killed herself.”
“But she kept talking about wanting revenge. Maybe she got in contact with him. Maybe she wanted to tell Evan how much better off she is, and how happy she is that she’s going to college, and how much she hates him for all the ways he hurt her, and—and that’s all that makes sense.
That’s the only thing that makes sense.”
Headlights shone behind us.
“Shit. I’m blocking the road,” Simone said. “Do you want to come back to my place?”
“No, I need to let Honey out. And I think I want to be alone right now.” I rubbed a hand down my face. “I can just walk.”
“Like hell you can.” She shifted the car back into drive, cut the wheel as far as she could to the right, and skirted off to the side of the gravel. Out the window, she waved her arm at the other driver. “I’ll take you home.”
Maybe that was best. I wasn’t sure I could distinguish between up and down at this moment.
I rambled some more, just repeating that same sentiment over and over.
Delilah didn’t kill herself. It had to be her ex.
Simone kept agreeing with me all the way until we reached my front door. Then, as I reached for the handle, she grabbed my other hand. “Are you okay?”
I nodded out of instinct. But I was not okay.
“If you need me, just call.” Eyes filled with tears, she squeezed my hand. “I’ll leave Junie with Margaret, and I’ll be here. I’ll be here in a heartbeat.”
Swallowing hard, I nodded. “Thank you. You too.”
A nod of understanding. As I stepped from the car, she called, “Love you!”
“Love you too,” I said.
She waited until I was in the door to back out of my driveway.
Honey’s obnoxious barks filled my ears as I stepped through the threshold, but it sounded hollow. Muffled. I shut the door and collapsed to the hardwoods, my knees numb on the contact.
As I ran my fingers through Honey’s fur, more tears escaped my eyes, burning my icy cheeks.
Honey lapped at them.
Holding her helped. Feeling the soft, yet fluffy texture of her hair felt real. Most else didn’t, but she did.
The truth was, I didn’t want to be alone.
Phone in hand, I scrolled through my contacts. When I made it to his name, I pressed call. He came through on the third ring. “Hey, beautiful.”
My voice cracked again when I said, “Hey. Are you busy?”
“I’m never too busy for you,” Sebastian said. “Are you alright?”
I tried to breathe slowly, but the words came tumbling out.
“Yeah. Yeah, I’m—I don’t know. I don’t know what I am.
But I don’t wanna be alone. Can you come over?
Shit, no you can’t.” I grabbed a fistful of hair at the back of my head.
“Lizzie’s probably in bed. I’m sorry. I shouldn’t have called. I’m just—”
“Hey, hey. Slow down, alright?” His voice was smooth, but firm. Grounding, like a stone softened by millennia of erosion. “Lizzie’s old enough to be alone for a while. I can come over. Or you can come to my place, if you want? I’ve been meaning to invite you over anyway.”
That sounded nice. Maybe a drive would be nice. “Can I bring Honey?”
“I’d expect nothing less.”