Page 159 of Wicked Little Secret

“Wait…” I can’t finish my sentence as my brain lurches to a halt and no new thoughts form. The little hairs on the back of my neck rise one by one. I meet Theron’s gaze and Iknow. I understand where this is going…

“They had a relationship. Or as close to a relationship as you can call a nineteen-year-old freshman sleeping with her forty-nine-year-old professor.”

“No,” I say.

Theron’s mouth shifts into a tight line of sympathy, his jaw clenched. “Yes, Nyssa, he got her pregnant.”

My face falls back into my hands. I can’t bring myself to give any other kind of response.

The revelation’s enough to make me want to run away and never face any of this again. How could Brooklyn keep this from me?

“As soon as he found out she was pregnant, he demanded she abort it. She refused. That’s when she went away to have the baby.”

“Me?”

He sighs. “Yes. But that wasn’t the end of their affair. They continued seeing each other on and off through the years. When I found out, I demanded she leave him. I told him if he ever touched her again…” he pauses, the tension in his jaw visible. “Professor Vise got worried he would be exposed. So what did he do? He exposed Josalyn first. He made it look likeshewas comingontohim.

“Back then, in those times, young women were rarely believed. They were often blamed. Even when the man involved was old enough to be their father. The rumors spread like wildfire. Josalyn was shunned and put up for expulsion by Dean Rothenberg Sr. Holly Bunton and the rest of their clique targeted her and made her life a living hell.”

“And where wereyou?” I ask accusatorially. “Why didn’t you help her!?”

“I tried. I pleaded with my father to intervene with the board of trustees,” Theron snaps, taking several steps toward me. “I threatened Vise. There were times I almost… I almost hurt him very badly. But then I discovered what Josalyn was doing. A spate of murders had started to rock the local community. All individuals linked to the university in some manner.”

“Valentine.”

“Valentine,” he repeats. “No one knew who it was. Not even me. It sure as hell put the fear of god in everyone around campus. It seemed finally some retribution was coming their way, and they were shaking in their little designer boots. Josalyn and I laughed about it, though when I began to notice she was disappearing, I kept a close eye on her.”

“You mean you stalked her.”

He grits his teeth. “If that’s what you want to call it. She had no idea I followed her. I kept such close tabs. One night, she drove into the forest, and I realized what she was doing—she was burying a body.”

“No, she couldn’t have been. There’s no way she would. It was you! You were responsible! You’re Valentine!”

I leap up out of the bed, still clinging to the sheet, and begin pacing. Manic energy has suddenly shot through meand made me jittery and scatterbrained. I can’t process what Theron’s saying, because none of it makes sense.

My mother might be dead, but I know she wasn’t a killer.

She couldn’t have been.

There’s no way…

Theron blocks my path and grips my shoulders. “Look at me,” he commands, “your mother was Valentine. She was jilted over what happened with Vise and facing expulsion, so she began exacting revenge against the community. She left the heart-shaped valentines as her calling card to instill fear in others. In Vise himself.”

My eyes round. “You mean she was…”

“He was on the list.”

“No, my mother didn’t kill my father,” I sputter out. “He’s not even my father. He’s not?—”

“Your name,” he interrupts sharply. “Nyssa Oliver. What’s your birth certificate say?”

A chill trickles down my spine. “I don’t… I don’t have a birth certificate. Not an official one. I was born out of the country, and Brooklyn said it wasn’t registered. I was given a backdated letter of record instead?—”

“I’ll tell you what it says,” he cuts me off with passion blooming in his voice. His hold on me clenches tighter, almost painfully. Our faces are so close, our noses almost touch. “I know what it says because I went to the Castlebury Hall of Records myself and looked it up days ago. After being questioned at the police station. Rosalyn Vise.”

“What? That’s not my?—”

“Rosalyn Vise is your birth name, Nyssa. Your mother gave you his last name. She wanted you to have it as irrefutable proof. As a reminder to him the baby was his.But when she died, your aunt decided to change it. Rearrange the letters in Rosalyn Vise and what do you get?”

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