Chapter 46
Kyle
Humans love to be right. Our ego thrives on it. No matter what circumstance or setting we're in, knowing that our theories are exactly correct makes us feel superior, validated, and important.
I'm definitely one of those people. I love winning arguments. I love being proven correct. I love the moment when people have to admit that I was absolutely right all along. It feeds something deep in me that probably isn't very healthy, but it's undeniably there.
But sitting here in my car, watching Lily drive her parents' vehicle toward Oliver's house, made me realize that this was the one time in my entire life when I desperately wanted to be wrong.
I would have given anything, my pride, my ego, my need to be right, to have my theory be completely off base.
I won't deny that part of my heart shattered with this discovery.
Not because she was responsible for something so terrible, but because she'd never had enough trust in me to tell me the truth.
Even now, after we'd traveled back in time together and supposedly resolved all our differences, she still couldn't confide in me about the most important secret she carried.
But I couldn't even blame her for that silence. I knew I'd been a complete piece of shit in the past.
I started thinking about how I'd reacted when everyone began pointing fingers at Leo ten years ago.
I never truly listened to her desperate pleas.
I never wanted to support her when she insisted on her brother's innocence.
I simply closed myself off to any possibility except the obvious one: my friend was dead, and someone needed to pay for it.
I was so consumed by my own grief and anger that I couldn't see beyond what was directly in front of me. I was young, scared, and traumatized, but that didn't excuse my willful blindness.
I wondered how drastically things might have changed if I had just listened to her. If I had trusted her enough to believe she was telling me the truth. If I had stopped to think about why she was so certain of her brother's innocence.
Now I could finally understand all the resentment she'd harbored toward me for years. Leo was locked up because of me. Because I was a key witness to the bullying he'd suffered and testified against him in court. Because I was never able to doubt what my eyes had supposedly seen.
But now I knew I'd been wrong about everything.
All that remained was to discover what would happen next, and what circumstances had driven Lily to make such a devastating choice in the first place.
Would she go through with it again? Would she actually kill Oliver? What had pushed her to that breaking point?
I began observing everything from my hidden position in the car.
Every instinct screamed at me to jump out and run toward her, to intervene before things went too far.
But doing so now would ruin whatever was about to unfold, and I needed to understand the whole picture if I wanted to prevent it.
I had to be patient if I wanted to catch the truth.
Lily parked in Oliver's driveway and just sat there for several minutes, not moving, not getting out, just staring at the house.
What was she thinking? Was she summoning the courage for what she was about to do? Was she going over her plan step by step, rehearsing every detail? Or was she having second thoughts, wrestling with her conscience one final time?
I felt like I didn't know her at all anymore. Everything I thought I understood about her motivations and impulses had been turned upside down. She'd left me entirely in the dark.
Sometimes you think you've known someone your entire life until they take an action that makes you question everything you believed about them.
I thought I knew Lily inside and out, her fears, what made her laugh, what triggered her anger, the dreams that kept her awake at night.
These past six weeks, I'd been trying to rediscover her, to fill in the gaps from our ten years apart.
But now I realized I'd never really known her at all. I'd never understood what she was truly capable of when pushed to her limits. And most importantly, I'd never grasped what was really tormenting her beneath the surface.
I watched as she finally got out of the car and approached the front door.
After ringing the doorbell, she waited. A few minutes later, Oliver appeared, and the two of them began talking.
From my distance, I obviously couldn't make out their words, but their body language was telling a story I didn't like.
My curiosity was eating me alive, but I couldn't compromise my position. I had to stay hidden until intervention became necessary.
Suddenly, Oliver moved toward her aggressively, and she backed away, trying to maintain distance between them, until she was pressed against her car, with nowhere left to retreat.
He started laughing. She was looking around frantically, seeming incredibly nervous, as if searching for an escape route or help that wasn't coming.
When I thought the situation couldn't possibly get worse, he lunged forward and began choking her.
What the hell was happening? This wasn't what I'd expected at all. She wasn't resisting or fighting back against him, which confused and terrified me.
At first, I thought maybe he wasn't actually hurting her, that this was some kind of twisted game between them, like what happened with the teacher. But then I saw him strike her hard across the face, the impact sending her crashing to the ground.
That's when I finally decided to intervene. I couldn't just sit here and watch Oliver assault Lily.
She wasn't defending herself for some reason, and that was making me panic even more. I threw open my car door and started running toward them, but someone grabbed my arm and yanked me behind a large tree.
"Where do you think you're going?"
The voice stopped me cold. I spun around, trying to regain my balance and composure. Standing in front of me was Brandy, holding a knife to my throat.
"What the hell are you doing here?" I demanded, trying to keep my voice steady despite the blade pressed against my skin.
"Same thing as you, apparently," she replied without lowering her weapon.
"That doesn't answer my question."
"You're not in a position to be asking questions, Kyle." She gestured toward the knife. "Now you're going to do exactly what I say, or things are going to get very ugly very quickly."
"If you don't let me go right now, things will get a lot worse than ugly. Can't you see what's happening over there?"
"I can see perfectly clearly, but I think you're the one who's blind," she responded coldly. "What I see is that all men are the same. Leo cheated on me with his best friend, and now Oliver is cheating on me with Leo's sister. Isn't that ironic? I'm never going to have a healthy relationship."
"I don't know what the hell is going on in your head, but it doesn't look like they're having a romantic encounter to me."
"How can you be so blind?"
"Enlighten me then, Brandy. Why do you think I'm the one who can't see clearly?"
"Oliver has been stalking Lily for months, just like he did with me. But since he's got me exactly where he wants me, it's time for him to go after fresh prey."
I began analyzing every word she'd just said.
Could it be true? Would Lily have told me if she were being harassed by Oliver?
Unless... She didn't trust me with that information unless I hadn't been listening closely enough.
Unless she didn't feel like I was someone she could rely on for protection.
"And if you know she's in danger, why the hell are you stopping me from helping her?" I asked, now desperate. If what she was saying was accurate, then Lily was in serious trouble, and I needed to reach her before something irreversible happened.
"For the same reason you're here. I need enough evidence to finally leave that psychopath. Just like you need proof to leave her. Maybe we're the ones who are meant to be together."
"Stop talking crazy. Go home and forget about all of this."
"I'm not going anywhere," she said, raising her voice.
But as she did, her grip on the knife loosened slightly. I seized the opportunity, grabbing her wrist and throwing her to the ground. The blade clattered onto the sidewalk, and I lunged for it.
"Stop being an idiot. Go home and forget what you saw here," I told her, now holding the weapon.
She just lay there on the concrete, refusing to meet my eyes, sobbing quietly.
But I didn't have time to worry about Brandy's breakdown. I needed to save Lily, so I started running toward the house as fast as I could.