Page 93 of Lesson Learned

I imagine my uncle’s face when he hears the news. If he makes the trek down to see me, it’ll just be to tell me he always knew I’d end up in prison. That I’d always been too clever for my own good.

Sluts get what sluts deserve.

“You’re not being arrested,” Conner whispers. “I’ll take care of everything. Don’t worry.”

It’s probably a trick. Something to calm me down so I come along quietly. The last thing Kingswood College needs is a murderous student making a big scene, alerting even more people to my heinous crimes.

“Please, can you tell Marnie it wasn’t… I didn’t chase him. Floss knows, but she’s on the outs with her. If you tell her, too, she’ll be more likely to understand.”

“Paisley.” He cups my face in his hands and the touch is so sweet, so kind, so gentle that my heart breaks. I wanted so badly to be his girlfriend and now I’ve fucked everything up for him.

The school will ask questions. Once again, he could lose his job.

Even worse, he must think I’m like his ex-wife. Cheating on him. He’s probably had déjà vu from the moment he walked in here.

I didn’t even kill James properly. He had to finish the job because I couldn’t get that right.

“I wasn’t… He was forcing me; I didn’t want to do any of it.”

“No one’s suggesting you did, sweetheart.”

“No, but… It’s not like your wife. I swear, I wasn’t cheating on you… I was working things out with Floss, but he tricked me. He kept tricking me. He threatened to tell on you. On us.”

Conner presses his lips to mine, forcing my babbling to stop, short-circuiting all thoughts in my head with how good he feels. And suddenly, I’m so furious that I don’t get to keep this. That I finally found something special and now it’ll all be torn away.

“It’s not your fault,” he whispers when the gentle kiss ends. He brushes my hair back to look straight into my eyes. “I know we haven’t known each other long but I love you and I trust you. None of this is your fault. Do you hear me?”

The words cut through the fog. It’s like I’ve been trapped behind glass and now I’ve thumped back into my body.

“I love and trust you, too.”

He bends forward, pressing his brow against mine, touching noses in the world’s gentlest hongi. “Then I better not fuck this up because I want to spend the rest of my life with you.”

My heart stops pounding with guilt and starts pounding with joy. It’s so overwhelming, I understand when he moves us apart. Who could concentrate with all that going on?

I turn to the side and see Floss’s phone lying on my bed. “Where did you get that?”

He steps away just long enough to snag it. “James had it in his pocket. Do you know whose it is?”

Conner doesn’t resist as I take it from his hands, swiping to the lock screen, then typing in her passcode. The screen springs into life. I see the text message James sent from her phone. The text that lured me back here on false pretences.

“This belongs to Floss,” I answer, too shell-shocked to process what that means. “He’s been blackmailing her, too.”

I frown, twisting to stare around the room. “Where’s James?” For a second, I think I imagined the whole thing. It was a terrible dream and I’m now awake and none of it ever happened.

Then I feel the pulse of pain from the fresh cut, the ache in my shoulder from where I wrenched it, fighting free.

Not a dream.

“I’ve moved him. Don’t worry. Nobody will ever pin this on you, all right?”

Pin this on me? “But Ididit.” The room looks so clean and tidy. Everything’s been moved back into place. “Didn’t I?”

His arms wrap around me, warm and wonderful. “Listen to me. You did nothing wrong. You can stay with my brother while I’m sorting things out here. He’ll make sure nothing happens to you.”

“No.”

“It’s not safe for you to stay here.”

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