Page 76 of Always Us

“No!” I drop my phone and lunge at him.

“Garret!” My dad races into the room, grabbing me and yanking me away, holding me back.

“He killed Jade!” I fight against my dad, my eyes on William, who’s now texting someone on his phone. “He admitted it! He—”

“Garret, stop!” My dad yanks me back even more. As I continue to fight him, he says by my ear, “It’s not real. I’ll explain later.”

What? What’s not real? This whole scene is so fucked up I don’t know if any of this is real.

He lets me go and I turn to see his face. He nods slightly, then his eyes dart to Katherine, then back at me. He’s telling me something. What is he telling me?

“Pearce!” Katherine cries out as she runs over to him. “I don’t know what’s going on here, but I came to see your father and found William putting something into Holton’s IV. I was going to call the ambulance but then you showed up and—”

“Katherine!” he says to her. “That’s enough!”

I hear someone in the hall. Dr. Cunningham comes in, wearing his white lab coat. He goes over to my grandfather and checks his pulse, then listens to his heart. Then he walks over to Katherine. “He’s gone. Do you still want Eleanor to find him in the morning? Or should I go wake her?”

“Please give us a moment,” William says to the doctor.

He nods and leaves the room.

Katherine looks up at my dad. “Pearce, I didn’t do this. I promise you. It was William. I saw him do it. The syringe is still on the floor. The drugs he used were from Sinclair Pharmaceuticals.”

My dad stares down at her. “And how would you know that, Katherine?”

She inhales sharply. “I, I didn’t. I just assumed.”

“You killed him,” my dad says to her. “And William and I will attest to that when we report this to the organization. I imagine the punishment for killing someone at the high-level ranking my father was at will be quite severe. Granted you aren’t a member, but your father is and will be punished accordingly. And you will be as well.”

She shakes her head. “No. You can’t do that. And William…” She looks at him. “William would never accuse me of that. He knows I didn’t—”

“The game’s over, Katherine,” he says, coming over to her. “We played you. Got you to do what needed to be done and kept our hands clean.”

“But in the end, you’ll get what you want,” my dad says to her. “With my father gone, our divorce will be approved. But you won’t be marrying the senator. They’ll find someone else for him. Someone of a higher social standing. You won’t be allowed in our world anymore. They’ll make sure of that.”

“Pearce, how could you do this to me? I’m your wife! The mother of your child!”

“Yes, about that. I’m getting full custody of Lilly in the divorce.”

She narrows her eyes at him. “You can’t raise our daughter. You’re never even home.”

“And yet I see her more than you do. You’re in the same house with her all day and instead of spending time with her, you ignore her and force her to stay in her room. I’m not arguing about this Katherine. She’s staying with me. If you’d like to fight that, I’d be happy to expose even more of your sins to the members.”

Her eyes bounce between my dad and William. “What are you going to do now? Have me arrested?”

“We’d prefer to avoid the hassle and publicity of an arrest,” William says. “The punishment handed down from the organization should suffice.”

“No. This isn’t right. Pearce, you can’t—”

“Leave,” my dad says to her. “Get what you need from the house and go stay in a hotel.” When she doesn’t move, he yells, “Get out!”

She hurries out of the room.

I storm over to William. “What the fuck did you do to Jade?”

“Nothing,” he says. “I just texted my men and they confirmed that she’s safe and in the house watching TV.”

I pick up my phone and call her. This time she answers.

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