Chapter 56
fifty-six
Tristyn
You did not.”
“I did.” Vince fiddles with his fingers. “I guess I thought I could get him to at least talk to you. Obviously, that didn’t work.”
“Yeah, well, it doesn’t seem like he’s doing that much lately. Ember messaged me the other day about convincing him to go to some banquet. It didn’t seem like they knew about the breakup.”
“What did you say?”
“I didn’t respond.” I sigh. “They all probably think I’m a total bitch or something now. I haven’t responded to a single message from any of the girls in four days.”
“I guess it’s not the kind of thing that casually comes up in conversation.”
“Yeah.” I run a hand through my hair and rest against the couch. “Does he hate me?”
“I don’t know.”
Vince isn’t lying. I could always tell when he was lying to me, but truthfully, he doesn’t know. I guess he wouldn’t tell my best friend that he hated me, even if that’s how he felt; that’s not who Jeremy is.
“I think he has a lot of conflicting feelings. It’s hard to hate someone you love so much.”
“Not when they’ve done what I did.”
“What Andrew did.”
“I protected him.”
“You protected yourself, T.” Vince scoots forward. “He fractured your wrist when you wanted to call 9-1-1. I don’t even want to think about what he would’ve done if he found out you went to the cops.”
“I guess that doesn’t matter now.” I shake off the thought of that night. “Enough about me. How’s your situationship?” I tease.
“I don’t have a situationship.”
“Okay, how’s your, whatever you want to call it?”
“No, I mean, that thing, whatever it was, is over.”
“What? Since when?”
“Since I realized you were right and I was starting to want more out of it, and he made it pretty clear that it becoming something more wasn’t something even on his mind.”
“Oh, Vince.”
“It’s fine. He wants to play pro football, and I think we both know I’m not cut out to be a pro football player boyfriend.” Vince forces a laugh, but with the way he’s avoiding eye contact, I know it’s hurting him.
“Well, I think you would’ve been fabulous at it.” I smile at him. “It’s Marcus’ loss.”
“Yeah. The same goes for you.”
My smile falters. It’s strange to have mixed feelings about a night that changed your life in the way that accident changed mine. Without that night, I wouldn’t have met the love of my life, but then he’d at least still have the thing he loves most in life.
And if I didn’t shy away from the truth that night, maybe we could’ve had both. Maybe we could’ve found each other, and he’d still get to live his dream.
I used to think about it a lot. All of the threats Andrew would send me or tell me when I saw him.
After the accident, he basically alluded to the fact that if I turned him in, and he got out because he has fancy lawyers who would make sure he never spent a day in jail, he’d find a way to get rid of me.
When he first said it, I thought he meant he’d find a way to get me sent to jail instead, but I don’t think that’s what he meant. I think he wanted to make sure I was scared. He wanted to make sure I’d never tell the cops about that night, and it worked for a while, but not anymore.
“Can I ask you something?”
“Always.” Vince reaches out and squeezes my arm.
“If something happened to me, would you take care of Henry?”
“I love Henry more than anything in the world.” Vince’s smile fades as a realization hits. “Why? What are you going to do?”
I shrug.
“Something I should’ve done a long time ago.”
I’m sorry to keep you waiting, Miss Stevens.” The officer sits down at his desk. “I’m Officer Russo, and I hear you have some information about a crime.”
“Yeah.” The word catches in my throat. “It’s about Jeremy Moore’s accident.”
Now I have his full attention. Officer Russo shifts in his chair.
“Okay.”
“I don’t know if you can make these kinds of promises.
I’m not trying to get out of anything, but I have a son, and I need to make sure he’s okay.
My best friend Vince, I made him the guardian of my son so that he’ll go to him, if something were to happen, and I want to make sure that’s full proof because he has grandparents who I need to make sure he doesn’t get stuck with,” I ramble.
“They’re bad people, and I don’t want him to grow up in a house feeling unloved.
I don’t want him to become like his dad and—”
“Miss Stevens.”
“I’m sorry.”
My vision blurs as tears fill my eyes.
“I just need to make sure he’ll be okay.”
“What do you know about that night?” Officer Russo ignores my comment.
“I was in the car.” I let out a long breath. “The other car. The one that ran him off the road.”
Officer Russo is trying not to have a reaction to what I’m saying, but there’s a small change in his eyes that exposes his true reaction.
“My son’s father was driving the car that night,” I whisper.
“We were with him. I didn’t want us to be.
He had been drinking a lot, from the looks of it.
And after the accident, I wanted to call for help, but he told me that we’d lose Henry.
That Henry would grow up without his parents, and when I still wanted to call, he threatened me and fractured my wrist.”
Officer Russo shifts in his chair again.
“He was rambling on and on that night about something to do with hockey. And I thought nothing of it until about a week ago. I don’t think that night was an accident at all.”
Officer Russo’s eyebrows raise just slightly.
“He was talking about losing hockey, about always being overlooked and compared to another player. I just assumed he was drunk and was still upset over his team not making it to the finals. We were parked on a side street for two hours, and I had no idea why he wanted us to go driving, for us to just sit, and then suddenly we were moving. And then we were swerving, and I was watching in the rear-view mirror as the headlights from the car behind us disappeared off the side of the road.”
Officer Russo scribbles down on his notepad and then stops me.
“Would you be willing to give an official statement?”
I nod.
“And I don’t know if these mean anything, but my best friend Vince said it might help.”
It’s screenshots of texts from Andrew. Texts I didn’t even know I still had. Everything from threats to me getting a new phone after he smashed mine, to alluding to the accident without really mentioning it.
“Jeremy Moore deserves justice.” I lick my lips. “And I think it’s about time that I help him get it.”