Page 59 of Fatal Betrayal

"Kendall wasn't a slut; she was just friendly."

"Oh, come on, Cooper. She had sex under the bleachers with Timothy Harding after a football game."

His jaw dropped. "No way. You never told me that."

"I think I found out about it after we weren't talking anymore."

"Oh, right."

Silence fell between them. "I missed you after it all went bad," she said. "It was hard to see your eyes burn with anger when you looked at me. I missed my best friend. It was almost a relief when my mom made us move. But it was sad, too." She swallowed a knot of emotion. "I can't believe your parents don't hate me."

"Like I said, they didn't blame you as much as law enforcement."

"But their opinion didn't change your mind."

"Because I was with you that night. I saw what you saw, and I told you the car you saw wasn't my brother's. But you wouldn't listen. It felt like you wanted it to be true, so you could take it to the police, so you could work with the cops, be a detective. It's like you wanted to find your way into a real investigation."

She couldn't believe that's the way Cooper had seen her actions. "I didn't make it up, Cooper. I thought that was his car that I saw. And I was ahead of you. I had a better view of it."

"It didn't stop with the car. You started talking to other people in the neighborhood, and you got some girls to say they saw Kyle hanging around the park one day when Hannah was there with her nanny."

"I didn't get them to say that," she corrected. "I overheard them talking, and I just asked if they'd told the police."

"Well, it just snowballed from there. Kyle was taken in for questioning. Everyone thought he did it. People would call him names like child molester, kidnapper, and murderer. Our cars and our house got egged. And it didn't just end with Kyle. I got a lot of hate, too."

She felt bad about all that. Things should never have gone so far in that direction, especially since Kyle was never charged for the crime.

"There were no other suspects but Kyle," Cooper continued. "He was found guilty in the court of public opinion based on absolutely nothing."

"There were other persons of interest. They also thought Mr. Montgomery might have had something to do with it, too," she reminded him.

"I don't remember people hounding him the way they did Kyle. Maybe there was some suspicion, but he also got a hell of a lot of sympathy."

"You're right. Kyle's reputation was smeared," she admitted.

"And my brother couldn't handle it. He had difficulties relating to people even before that. He had trouble making friends, communicating. You knew all that."

"I think I know more of it now than I did then," she defended.

"Come on, Andi. You knew."

"I felt horrible about what happened to Kyle and to your family. I didn't know any of that was going to happen. I wanted to find Hannah; it wasn't just a game, Cooper. I babysat that little girl. I could hear her laugh in my head. I could see her smile. I wanted to bring her back. But I couldn't. And in the end, I just drove my best friend away."

"Would you change anything if you could go back and do it again?"

She thought about his question for a long minute. "I can't go back, and I can't change it, so whatever I say doesn't matter. I did what I did, and you did what you did. We both thought we were right, and apparently we still do."

They were interrupted by the sound of his mother calling them down to lunch. That put a small smile back on her face. "How many times did your mom call us down for a meal?" she asked.

"Too many to count."

"We have a lot of history together, Cooper. Not all of it was bad. From the age of eight to fourteen, we were cool. You were a great friend. And your parents were the best role models I had."

"My mom always liked you. She told me once you were like a little bird struggling to fly. You were flapping your wings as hard as you could, but you weren't ready to soar, and it was making you crazy."

"That describes how I felt back then. I wanted to leave the nest because it didn't feel safe. I didn't feel loved. I was trapped in a war between two people who were obsessed with destroying the other. When I came over here, it was a different world. There were warm cookies, siblings, and lots of laughter. There were parents who asked about your day, so much so you were often annoyed by their questions. But I loved when your mom asked me stuff, because my parents rarely knew what I was working on." She drew in a breath and stood up. "We should go downstairs."

"We should. Before my mom thinks something is going on up here that she needs to interrupt," he said dryly, as he got to his feet. "You might have been oblivious to my changing feelings about you, but didn't you ever wonder why my mother was suddenly bringing in my laundry and leaving the door open every time you came over? I swear she had a radar for whenever I was thinking about kissing you. Suddenly, she'd show up."

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