Page 34 of I Will Mend You

Hours later, Isabel walks in. “Your vital signs are stable, your respiratory symptoms have improved, and your lung function is normal.”

“Then you’ll turn off the sedation,” I say.

She nods. “I’ll taper it off. You’ll be fully alert within an hour.”

“And the restraints?” I ask.

“They stay in place until you’re cleared by Dr. Dixon.”

The only thing keeping me from tearing through the restraints is the need to maintain the appearance of cooperating. Isabel can and will increase the sedatives if she thinks I plan on escaping.

When she leaves, Jynxson walks in. “What do you want to deal with first, the new lead I squeezed from Dr. Saint or the raid on X-Cite Media’s HQ?”

“What did she say?” I ask.

“After I showed her the crime scene photos, she finally admitted Amethyst was referred to her by the Salentino twins who run the Newton Crematorium. Apparently, she’s their niece.”

“Why do I know that name?”

“They’re the second cousins of your fellow inmate, Roman Montesano. That explains how her house on Alderney Hill was purchased from Enzo Montesano’s real estate company.”

“All very interesting, but what else did the psychiatrist say?”

“Dr. Saint still can’t remember the name of Amethyst’s institution, but she said Amethyst arrived already addicted to a cocktail of anti-anxiety medication and antipsychotics, which had caused her to hallucinate. Her mother wanted her well enough to attend boarding school.”

I stare at Jynxson for several seconds, my mind reeling. “That’s it?”

“That’s all she could tell me about Amethyst’s background, but she confirmed increasing the doses after Amethyst killed the teacher, and again after she killed the Reed brothers at her college dorm.”

“Can she account for Amethyst’s time at the Greenbridge Academy?”

He nods. “There were bi-weekly visits and no talk of her being forced to appear in videos. I’ve sent someone to Dr. Saint’s office to pour through her records, but I don’t think Reverend Thomas is lying about the little doll.”

I squeeze my eyes shut, trying to fit together these contradictory stories. It’s the same level of frustration I get when I consider the impossibility of that graveyard video. Nobody,however well trained or steeped in delusions, could shrug off the physical effects of multiple assaults.

“What if there are two of them?” I crack open an eye.

His brow pinches. “Come again?”

“One woman can’t be in two different places at the same time,” I snarl. “They also can’t live two parallel lives. Dolly is the twin who married my father. Amethyst is the twin whose memory was altered—for whatever reasons—and kept under a regimen of drugs and partial house arrest by a neurotic mother.”

Jynxson rubs his chin. “Say I believe they’re twins. Which one tried to burn you alive?”

My jaw clenches hard enough to crack my molars. I have my suspicions it was Amethyst, infuriated at seeing a video of me inviting other men to violate her while she was unconscious, but that line of thinking leads me to a harsh truth.

Amethyst didn’t trust me enough to believe I wouldn’t do something so heinous. All the months we spent together meant nothing, and my love for her was unrequited. I was nothing more than a threat to be neutralized.

“We’ll find out when I catch up with them at the shoot,” I reply.

“One more thing,” he adds.

“What?”

“If Dolly was at the airport with the blond, where was Amethyst?”

My phone buzzes with a message from Tyler. It’s a link to a video on the social media platform where Amethyst used to post content.

Title: XERO SIMP CAUGHT BY COPS FLEEING THE COUNTRY

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