Page 137 of It Starts With A No

She wasn’t sure if her jaw could drop any further.

“I didn’t hurt her. I don’t even think the blood on the jacket was Winnie’s.”

“Then whose was it?”

Seth peered toward the door. “Oliver doesn’t know about this.”

She put her hand over her mouth.

“Zane found Oliver wandering around the house with the jacket in his hand. His head was bleeding, and he was delirious.”

“And still sleepwalking?”

“I don’t know. By the time I saw him, he was mumbling incoherently. We thought he must’ve gotten into an altercation with Winnie.”

“You thought the blood was his.”

Seth nodded. “I decided to get rid of that jacket before she went to Holly and used it as an excuse to punish Oliver the next day. When Jimmy found me, he tried to snatch the jacket from me, but I got away. I burned it in the fireplace after that. I had no idea she was missing. And there was no way Oliver had anything to do with it, either. You’ve seen him. He wouldn’t hurt anyone.”

“You’ve never asked Oliver about it?”

Seth shook his head. “None of us ever talked about what happened that night. When we finally got back together, we were just trying to survive.” He sighed again. “I hadn’t even thought about them until …”

“Until that deranged man said you killed his sister.”

Seth nodded. “But then you gave a simple and reasonable explanation, so I just accepted that.”

“So you didn’t lie about the car the man was in.”

“No, I didn’t.” His brows drew together. “Did I get it wrong?”

“Yeah. But Andrea says it’s normal for witnesses to get things wrong.”

“Do you believe her?”

Her gaze roamed across Seth’s face. “I believe you.”

* * *

I believe you.

Seth cupped a hand against her cheek and pulled her closer as he leaned over to kiss her. With the castor sugar from the pancakes, she tasted incredibly sweet. “Thank you.”

Clary licked her lips. “I’m glad it isn’t Jimmy.”

“So am I.”

She took another sip of her pumpkin spice latte. “I love this. I’ll probably need to go for a run just from the extra calories.”

“I’m not sure if I should say that you don’t need to lose weight or that we have a gym upstairs.”

“You have a gym?”

“Zane requested it. It’s the latest addition to the building.”

“Huh.”

Seth took a deep breath. “Why do you always smell so sweet?”

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