Chapter Eighteen #2
“There was another person wandering around our house instead of at the party where they should’ve been,” he said.
“Dad’s gout was flaring up but that didn’t stop him sucking down the steak, and draining every glass of wine the waiters put in front of him.
I went upstairs to get his medicine, and when I came out of their room, I saw a woman whip around the corner.
I caught a glimpse of her face, but I did not see that face again the next morning when they gathered us in the ballroom. ”
“Meaning they missed someone.” I rocked back on his lap, chest squeezing. “And you’re just telling me this now. What. The. Fuck. Spencer! You and your damn secrets!”
“Whoa, whoa, easy,” he said with a laugh.
“It wasn’t a secret, and I’m only bringing it up now to back you up.
” Micah grasped my hips. His thumbs slipped under my shirt, rubbing slow circles on my rising goose bumps.
“You’re right, they did a terrible job investigating both murders, and you have every right to be mad about it. ”
“But why bring it up now?”
He cringed. “I didn’t want to say anything before because it’s a sore subject. I recognized her immediately. It was Dana Finley, Colin Finley’s mother.”
A ringing sounded in my ears—drowning out Micah and my own shouting mind.
“C-Colin’s mother?” I rasped.
“That’s right.” He was still smiling like it was no big deal. “I saw her upstairs but there’s no way she attacked your mom. I mean, why would she? But it does bring up a good question—if she slipped by them unnoticed, who else did?”
I barely heard him, my eyes were searching every twitch of his muscles.
My ears obsessed over the slightest inflection of his voice.
“Micah.” My voice came from far away. “You’re asking why would she kill my mother?
Seriously? How could you possibly believe Dana Finley doesn’t have reason to hate this family? ”
“Nah.” He waved that away, widening my eyes. “I’m sure she doesn’t hate your whole family, but that Sarang girl—”
I fell off his lap, stumbling away.
“—she must hate her... for sure...” Micah sat up, squinting at me. “You okay? What’s wrong?”
“Sarang?” I was still breathing, but somehow air wasn’t in my lungs. “You know... about Sarang?”
“What? Of course, I do.” He laughed. “Well, I know what you told me. Sorry, babe, I still don’t remember that year we were all at school together, but”—Micah hissed—“I do remember the day Colin went through the floor. Shit, that was horrible.”
Micah reached his hand out to me. “I know you said the whole family cut her off after she was expelled, but I still don’t think it’s right. She should’ve gone to prison for what she did.”
I stared at him, making no move to take his hand. One question and one question alone swirled through my mind.
Is this a trick?
“Micah,” I whispered, taking a step back. “I really do want us to start over and make different choices this time. Become a stronger couple.”
“Uh, okay?” His hand slowly returned to his side. “Did I say something wrong?”
“No, I did, and now I don’t remember what lies I told you about Sarang and Colin.”
“Lies?”
“Yeah, lies,” I said firmly, falling back on the vanity seat. “Remind me what I told you, so I can tell you the truth now.”
Alarm wrinkled his handsome features. “The hell? Sue, you told me Sarang was your cousin. She was messed up on drugs and a loser boyfriend, so her parents shipped her across the world to stay with you and your mom. But a bad pattern is called that for a reason. She came to Titan Prep and got mixed up with losers again. She was obsessed with looking good to her rich friends, so when they dared her to sabotage the stage, she did it.” He scoffed.
“I’m assuming she didn’t see the pipe sticking out of the ground and wasn’t planning for Colin to get impaled on it, but seriously.
“Rich jerks were always trying to get us scholarship kids to dance to their tune. But that doesn’t mean it’s not your fault when you don’t fucking say no.” He fixed on me. “But now you’re saying none of that is true?”
I slowly shook my head, feeling the weight of the lies and manipulations Sue weaved falling on me. I wasn’t sure, and I couldn’t ask the guys without giving myself away, but now I knew how completely she and Omma erased me.
She, with Omma’s help, convinced the guys that she was the one who got accepted into the prestigious Titan Prep, but unlike me, she sailed through with flying colors.
Why wouldn’t they believe it? Sue told them a lie about a girl named Sarang, but I never went by my real name in high school.
Everyone called me Sarah. Sarah Kim was the name under my yearbook photo.
And the last name Kim was one I shared with five other Kims in my graduating class—further muddying the pool if anyone ever brought up the Kim girl who almost murdered Colin.
There were a lot of Kim girls at Titan Prep, and Sue stuck herself among them.
All Sue had to do was tell the boys she went by Sarah too in high school and switched to Sue to differentiate from the Sarah everyone hated, and if they ever asked why Sarang wasn’t in the yearbook or why there were no photos of her anywhere, she’d say it was because Sarang Kim was her weirdo, loner freak cousin who never participated in anything or showed up for picture day.
Over the years, any rumors that swirled around she could easily gaslight away.
Someone in town asks Sue about her sister in front of Alex?
She’d just tell them the person got it wrong and meant her cousin.
If anyone ever said twin, ditto on blaming it on the cousin-family resemblance.
Everything gets blamed on a cousin that’s long gone, and Omma and Sue got to continue living the fantasy that I never existed.
And in a community like this where scandals are swept under the rug and only gossiped about in private homes over tea, the guys never had a reason to dig deeper into the lies my family told.
“It’s not true.” I clasped my hands to stop them from shaking. “Sarang didn’t sabotage the trapdoor. She was framed.”
His eyes bugged. “What? Are you serious?”
“As hemlock tea.” Be careful, Sarah. Think this through.
“The truth is that Sarang had an enemy during those years. Someone who hated her guts so much, they were willing to hurt an innocent kid to get rid of her,” I said, choosing my words carefully.
“But when she tried to tell the truth, no one believed her.”
Understanding dawned. “Because all they saw was some troublemaker scholarship kid.” He put his hand over his mouth. “Holy shit. She was expelled! Colin almost died! Who could hate anyone that much?”
“A truly sick and twisted person.” Not a word was a lie. “But Omma didn’t believe her. She was convinced Sarang was trying to shift the blame and weasel out of punishment by blaming someone else, so she kicked her out and...” I dropped my gaze. “And Sarang had no one.”
“Holy shit. Holy shit!” Micah goggled at me. “But I don’t get it, why would you lie to us about that? Why not just tell us your cousin was framed?”
“Because I was a part of it.”
Micah’s jaw fell open, but nothing came out.
“The truth is I hated Sarang too. I hated all the attention she got. I hated that Omma wouldn’t stop comparing me to her.
I hated that Sarang had friends, and fun, and a life—and all I had was a tutor with terrible halitosis.
I hated her, so I helped the bitch that did it by getting her into the school.
She didn’t go to Titan Prep, so she needed someone to let her in—that was me. ”
And that wasn’t a lie either. It was because of me that Sue was able to slip onto campus without raising an alarm. She did have my face after all.
“Oh, Sue...”
“I know.” I could barely speak around the lump in my throat.
“I’m a miserable, shit person. The only thing I can say in my defense is that I didn’t know what she’d do.
Never in a million years did I imagine she’d let her hatred of Sarang go that far.
I didn’t realize she was a monster with a human face mask until it was much too late. ”
Micah nodded slowly, feeling everything I told him sink in.
“After Colin was hospitalized, I kept quiet,” I said.
“I let Omma believe Sarang did it. I let everyone in town paint her as a psycho, even though I knew the truth. I was a coward.” Anger bled into my voice.
“A coward then, and every single day after that I went on lying and lying instead of telling everyone—most of all you, Alex, and Rhodes—the truth.
“I just didn’t want you to see me differently.” Of course Sue didn’t. She wanted you guys to go on believing she wasn’t a snake in a human suit. “But now I do,” I whispered. “I want you to see the real me. All of me. It’s the only way you can trust it when I say I love you.”
“Oh, baby girl...” He opened his arms. “Come here.”
I launched off the seat, falling into his arms.
He squeezed the mess out of me. “I’m not going to lie.
What you did—letting that psychopath into the school, and then keeping quiet when you knew your cousin was framed—it was a terrible thing to do.
A lot of people were hurt over some mean girl’s vendetta, and that matters.
Your cousin, your mother, Colin, and his family all deserved so much better. ”
This didn’t hurt me. After all, I agreed with every single word.
“But all of that said,” he murmured softly, “I’m really happy you told me.
You’re right, Sue. A marriage that’s going to last can’t be built on a mountain of resentment and lies.
For the first time in seven years, I feel like I’m finally getting to know you—and this person is so much more wonderful than the woman I first met. ”
I buried my face in his chest, fighting a smile. It was wrong to be happy when we were discussing something so sad, but I couldn’t help it. I felt it too.