Chapter 26
The cold, sterile room smelled of stale coffee and sweat. The fluorescent light buzzed overhead, casting a harsh glow over the metal table and the man sitting across from her—the man who was supposed to be her brother.
Craig looked up, his expression shifting from wary to relieved the moment he saw her. His shoulders sagged, his lips parting as if he’d been holding his breath. “I knew you’d come,” he exhaled. “Dimitri said you wouldn’t, but you always come through for me, Zelly.”
Giselle stared at him, her hands flat against the cold metal table, her pulse a steady, restrained rhythm in her ears.
She had always come through for him.
She had defended him against their parents, against their friends, against every rational person who had warned her to stop enabling him.
She had always believed he was better than the things he did.
That he just needed someone to believe in him, someone to fight for him, because if she didn’t, who would?
“I should have connected you to Elliot over a month ago,” she said, conversationally as she sat down across from him.
“Elliot accosted me in the street and he used your nickname for me.” She tilted her head slightly.
“You’re the only one who calls me Zelly.
” Craig opened his mouth to explain but Giselle lifted her hand, not interested in anything he had to say.
“Don’t,” she snapped. “I’m guessing you came by my office one day to visit me?
” At his stunned expression, she chuckled.
“No, you probably came by one day to beg for money.” She sighed.
“And you ran into Elliot instead.” She tapped a fingernail on the metal table. “Who came up with the idea?”
“It wasn’t… I mean,” he started, stammering as he tried to come up with something she would believe.
“Never mind,” she said, sighing heavily.
She had sacrificed for him. Lied for him. Loved him. And now, this. Her voice was quiet but sharp enough to cut. “Who broke into my apartment and destroyed my things?”
Craig stiffened. Giselle tilted her head, watching him. “It wasn’t you,” she stated. “But you know who did it.”
His eyes darted away. He swallowed hard, but it was no use. She already knew.
“Elliot,” she murmured, feeling the name like a blade sliding between her ribs.
Her stomach clenched, bile rising in her throat. How could he?
She had defended him, sworn up and down to Dimitri that Craig was just thoughtless and made bad choices sometimes, but he wasn’t malicious. That he made bad choices, but he wasn’t a bad person.
But now?
Her brother sat across from her, his hands cuffed to a table because he had let that man destroy her home, search her life, looking for the reports she had been working on—reports that held the first solid lead on who had been stealing from Dimitri.
And then her damned brother had shown up and helped her sweep up the mess!
That night, when she’d been terrified and humiliated, wondering how she was going to replace what had been destroyed, Craig had known. For how long?
Her palms pressed into the tabletop as her breath came sharp and unsteady. “You let him,” she whispered.
Craig’s head snapped up. “No! Giselle, I didn’t—I swear, I didn’t know until after—”
Her laugh was bitter, hollow. “Until after,” she repeated. “And what did you do then, Craig? After you found out? Did you tell him to stop? Did you tell me? Did you do anything at all?”
His lips parted, but no words came out.
She let the silence stretch between them, heavy and suffocating.
Nothing but his guilt.
Her throat tightened. “I’ve spent my whole life believing in you,” she whispered. “I was the only person who ever stood by you, Craig. No matter how many times you screwed up, no matter how many bad decisions you made, I told myself, ‘He’s still good. He’s just lost.’”
Her hands curled into fists on the table.
“But this?” She shook her head. “This wasn’t a bad choice. This was you deliberately looking away when it suited you. This was you choosing someone else over me.”
Craig flinched like she had slapped him. “Zelly, I—”
“Do you know what it felt like?” she interrupted, her voice shaking now. “Walking into my apartment and seeing everything destroyed? Knowing that someone had ripped through my life?”
His face crumpled and he tried to lift his hands toward his face, but the handcuffs stopped the movement. “I didn’t want this, Giselle.”
Her breath hitched. Liar.
“No?” Her voice was ice now. “Then why did you let it happen?”
He shook his head, desperation creeping into his eyes. “You don’t get it. Elliot—he was losing control, and I—” He stopped, jaw tightening. “I didn’t know how to stop him.”
Giselle’s chest burned with something close to rage. “You could have stopped him by not being a coward,” she spat.
Craig recoiled. “That’s not fair—”
She exhaled harshly, forcing herself to stand. Her legs felt shaky, but her resolve was steady.
“You know what’s not fair?” she asked, her voice eerily calm. “That I spent my entire life fighting for you, only for you to throw me to the wolves the moment it was convenient.”
She reached into her bag and pulled out a folded document, sliding it across the table.
Craig stared at it, wary. “What’s that?”
“My statement,” she said flatly. “I already gave it to the detectives.”
Craig went still.
She met his wide, panicked eyes with quiet certainty. “I told them everything I knew.”
His breath hitched. “You—you wouldn’t.”
She straightened. “I did. I’ve spent the last month digging through the financial data. I gave the detectives everything I discovered.”
He shook his head wildly. “Zelly, you don’t understand what you’re doing.”
Her lips pressed into a thin line. “No, Craig. You don’t understand what you’ve done.”
For the first time, real fear flickered in his eyes. She stood and turned toward the door, her fingers reaching for the handle. Craig lurched forward as far as his cuffs would allow, his voice raw and desperate. “Giselle, please—”
She turned the handle.
And she walked out.
She didn’t look back.
And for the first time in her life—she didn’t feel guilty about it.