Page 29 of Ruthless Intent

“Before you think about walking out, consider this. The day Jason and Louisa were murdered, your dad filed for divorce. He was planning to go back to Marissa. That’s why you were coming to the house that night. You found out somehow, and wanted to ask Jason if he knew anything about it.”

Icy fingers drag down my spine. I don’t turn back, but I also don’t leave the room. His voice is silky as he continues to speak.

“What better way than to stop a divorce from happening could there be than a death in the family? The son of the two people who were reconciling after so many years. How could they possibly face each other again after that?”

I want to tell him to stop, to get out of the house, but there’s a lump in my throat stopping me from speaking.

“After forcing him to choose her over his wife all those years ago, Esme knew she had to do something. She already had a reputation for breaking up a happy family, how would it look if that man went back to the woman he left? Whatever she did, it had to be something big. Something that would keep him with her.”

“Stop it.” The words are barely more than a whisper.

“Sounds a little too much like the truth to you, doesn’t it?”

I shake my head.

“I’ve had a long time to think about this, about what really happened that night. I bet if we looked, we’d find a large cash withdrawal that can’t be explained going out of your mom’s account a week or two before Jason and Louisa died.”

“She wouldn’t do that.”

“You’re sure about that?”

“Yes.”

“I do hope so, Ashley. For your sake, I really do.”

“Why?” My heartbeat is a frantic rhythm, turning me lightheaded for the second time today.

“Because I’m about to give you two choices. I’ll either leave here and take my theory with me, or I’ll leave to give my statement to the police, and your mom will be arrested before the day is over. It all depends on which choice you pick.”

“Which choice?” I force the words out through frozen lips.

“And that’s why we need to talk. But I’d rather talk to your face than your back, so come and sit down.”

For half a second, I consider calling his bluff and walking out, but before the thought even completes, I turn and take the seat opposite him. His head tilts sideways, and he gives a nod.

“Good girl.”

“Don’t patronize me. What do you want?”

“I told you. You owe me, and I’m here to collect.”

CHAPTER SIXTEEN

ZAIN

I study the woman seated opposite me, and try to see the girl who had been in court that day. I have to admit that it’s hard. I didn’t interact much with her when Jason was alive. She was a kid, and definitely didn’t mix in the same circles as me.

Whenever she came to the house to see Jason, I was either just leaving or already out, and he never took me or Louisa along on the rare occasions he went to his dad’s house.

I spent the entire trial in a state of shock over what had happened, so I paid very little attention to the people around me there either. But when she took the stand, her words hit me hard, sent me reeling, and hammered the final nail into the coffin I was eventually buried in.

Maybe without her testimony the mistakes that were made by the prosecution wouldn’t have gone unnoticed. Maybe they would have still been ignored by the jury. There’s no way to know.

But that doesn’t matter.

Someone has to pay for what happened to me. And she’s the one who had the most to say. She’s the one who pointed at me and said she saw me murder my best friend.

“What’s your plan? Are you planning to make me sit here for fourteen years while you glare at me?” Her voice is sharp, but she can’t hide the faint tremor in her hands from me, before she tucks them beneath her thighs on the chair.

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