Chapter 25
“Get ready with me while I tell you guys all about the suspected murderer on my campus. Her name is Sloane Sawyer,” Marissa’s
voice echoes from my phone. Dani sent me the TikTok Marissa made about me and I watch it in silence while the three of us
sit at our table at the Bean.
“That fucking bitch,” I mutter. I bet she just couldn’t wait to post that.
“She’s probably just off the rails because Wes broke up with her after the ski trip, though I don’t know if he told her why
exactly,” Dani says.
“It sounds like he told her.” I hand Dani’s phone back to her.
“Forget about that,” Annica snaps. “Start explaining.”
I tell them everything. Well, not everything, but almost.
I explain the murders and the journal pages, and I tell them that me and Asher being together was only because he caught me trying to throw out evidence, and that there was never a real relationship, hence why he’s been “cheating” on me the whole time.
I do not, however, mention that it was a two-sided deal, the other side being to manipulate Wesley into passing on the resort.
I know Annica too well, and she would rat me out to Wes in a heartbeat.
I also admit to her that I’ve liked Wes for years, and this past summer really was not intentional—I never meant to hurt her or him or anyone.
“Wow,” Dani says, wide-eyed, when I’m done explaining. “Why did you feel like you couldn’t tell us any of this?”
I fiddle with the handle of the coffee mug, turning it this way and that. “I didn’t want you guys to get hurt. People have
died. I figured the less people involved the better.”
Annica crosses her arms, glaring at me. “But you sought out Asher instead?”
I try not to roll my eyes at her. “I didn’t seek him out. I told you he caught me in the act. I had to clue him in. He said
he’d help me.”
“In exchange for what?” she asks.
I think of something on the spot. “To pretend to date him in front of his family, to win him points with his grandfather.”
She narrows her eyes at me. “Well, that’s over with, so why did he sleep here last night? And what are you doing about Wes—are
you guys going to be together or what?”
My god, I tell her the most unbelievable story, about murder no less, and all she wants to know is what my relationship status
is.
“Asher stayed over because Miles pushed his way into my apartment and tried to . . .”
Dani gasps. “Oh my god, was he trying to kill you?”
“No, he was trying to . . . convince me to love him? He’s obsessed. It’s scary.”
“Well then, it makes sense that he would be the killer,” Annica says.
“That’s what I thought at first too, but then why try to pin it on me? If I’m in jail we can’t be together, so why would he be trying to send me there?”
“If he can’t have you, no one can?” Dani suggests.
“Maybe. But then at the hotel, it was a woman who put the gun in our room. His ex-wife, Kate Holland. Either way, the police
have all this information and should be looking into both of them. Especially after last night.”
“I wonder who was taking pictures of you outside the station and sent them to the gossip page,” Dani says. “How did they even
know you’d be there?”
“It was probably Marissa,” I say. “Get ready with me to go frame Sloane for murder!” I mock her annoying high-pitched tone.
Though it could’ve also been Colton, as he made it crystal clear he was going to make sure I was branded as a killer all over
social media.
“Sounds like something Asher would do,” Annica mutters.
“It wasn’t him, trust me.”
She scoffs. “That’s the problem, we can’t trust you.”
Dani was still scrolling through comments. “They’re calling you murder slut.”
I put my head in my hands. “That’s not even creative.”
“This one says the Pembroke Psycho,” she continues.
“I think I like murder slut better.”
“So what are you going to do, then, murder slut?” Dani asks.
“I’m going to let the police handle it now.”
“And they really don’t think it’s you at all?” Annica asks.
“They might, but they don’t have enough evidence to arrest me for it.” No one says anything else as we all sip our coffees in awkward silence. “So am I forgiven?” I try.
“For keeping two giant lies from us?” Annica says. “Not really.”
“But we’ll work on it,” Dani says. “Right, Annica? You said you would.” Dani nudges her.
Annica shakes her off. “I said that about the Wes thing. This is a whole other thing. There’s been nothing but lies coming
out of your mouth since last summer. It’s going to be pretty hard to trust you now. And would you have even told us about
any of this had you not been caught? Twice?”
She has a point. Because no, I wouldn’t have. “I’m sorry! Okay, I will make it up to you guys. I would’ve said something when
the dust settled. You have to believe that I kept it from you because I thought that’s what was best.”
“Hm, well, I know one way you could start to make it up,” Annica says. “You can let me read your short story.”
“Fine, deal.” What’s the harm of it now that she knows about Wes? Plus this semester is when draft editing starts and I’m
pretty sure by the end of it the whole class reads your story anyway. It is a small price to pay to have her back on my side.
“Friends again?” Dani says with a smile.
Annica rolls her eyes. “Yes, friends. Kind of.”
“Friends,” I repeat, holding up my mug as the other two clink theirs to mine.
Asher doesn’t stay over the next two days, and I don’t ask him to.
Grange comes by on Wednesday to get a detailed account of the assault, which in the end starts to sound more like we assaulted Miles, not the other way around.
I’m sure if Grange has seen Holland’s face, he’d agree.
I wonder if they called in Asher for questioning about any of this.
By Thursday I find myself standing on the boys’ porch at dusk. The bare trees stand black against the gray sky like wavering
skeletons, their branches creaking in the wind like bones. I knock on the front door, waiting for Asher to open it. But he
doesn’t; Wesley does.
“Sloane.” He smiles, and it’s warm in the bitter cold of winter. It almost knocks the breath from me to see him again, and
I wonder how he managed to drift from my mind for even a moment, let alone a month.
“Wes, hey, you’re back already.” I smile, stepping inside.
“Yeah.” He takes my coat. “I actually came back early to talk to you. Come upstairs. I want to show you something.” I remember
what Dani said about him and Marissa breaking up, and I wonder if that’s what this is about. I wonder if he’s seen the videos
she’s been making about me.
“Okay.” I follow him up and see the attic door to Asher’s room open a crack with the light on. I can talk to him after this.
When I walk into Wesley’s room I almost don’t recognize it. Large sheets of paper cover his bedroom walls. Some are photos
of the beach house, and each room inside of it, next to a large, printed floor plan, all drawn on with pen and marker.
“You’ve redecorated,” I say, looking around.
“Isn’t it great?” Wes walks around. “I’m putting together the plans for the house, and a business proposal for my dad. I’m
going to show him soon. I’m almost done. I worked on it all break.”
“Wow.”
“Margot’s Bed-and-Breakfast.” He smiles. “Named after my grandma.”
I give him a close-lipped smile and click my tongue. “That’s really sweet, Wes.”
“I wanted you to see it first. If it wasn’t for you I would’ve never even pursued it.” He’s looking at me like I’m the sun
that rises each morning, and I can’t help but wonder if he has no idea what everyone is saying about me these days. I open
my mouth to bring it up, to tell him everything, but he closes the space between us and kisses me with a passion that I would’ve
crawled for—no, died for—at the start of the school year. And now this, this is the Nicholas Sparks book scenario I’ve been wanting. So why does something still not feel right?
The kiss becomes deeper, and his hands move up my back, pulling me into him, and I realize where this is heading. I pull away
from him.
“Sorry,” he says. “Sorry, was that . . . I just got caught up in the moment.”
“No, no, it’s okay,” I tell him. “I just wasn’t expecting it.” From outside in the hall I hear Asher’s door slam and it makes
me jump. Wes doesn’t acknowledge it. “So I take it you and Marissa . . . ?”
“Yeah,” he breathes. “I told her what happened, and we decided on a mutual breakup. I think we also just want different things
after graduation.”
I nod.
“What about you and Asher?” he asks. “Are you guys still together?” Wes had asked me that over winter break and I told him
then that I wasn’t sure. I guess I’m still not.
“I was actually going to talk to him tonight,” I admit. I’m shocked to know Annica hasn’t told Wes about my and Asher’s fake relationship yet. Or that I’m a murder suspect. Somehow he seems blissfully unaware of anything outside of his bed-and-breakfast.
“Oh.” Wesley’s smile quickly becomes a frown at the realization. “So you came here tonight for Asher.”
“Well, yes, but to officially end things,” I say, recovering. And that’s not completely true because I don’t even know why
I came here. I thought maybe I’d see Asher again after I’d had a few days alone and I’d just know the answer.
Wes breathes what feels like a sigh of relief. “I know you obviously found something appealing about him . . . but I was honestly
waiting for the day that you two called it off. The whole time I just felt like he didn’t even really know what he had. Like
he didn’t even really want you . . .”
“Yeah,” I sigh, knowing I have to go upstairs and find out exactly that.
I climb the stairs to Asher’s room, half hoping he’s not really up here. But he is. Standing in front of his dresser putting
clothes away.
“What do you want?” he says with his back turned.
“It’s me,” I say.
He turns around and I notice the bruise on his cheek and another split lip. He must have seen his dad at some point this week.
“What do you want?” he repeats.