Page 63 of Where the Darkness Goes

“I need to tell you something.”

My muscles tense. Those words feel worse somehow than ‘we need to talk,’ which shattered me the first time, and I’m not sure I’d survive a second.

Slowly, I turn my head to look at him. His dark hair framed by the white pillow looks ethereal and innocent, so peaceful it hurts. “Okay.”

He rolls onto his side, squeezing his eyes shut. “I wanted to tell you before any of this happened, and I’m so sorry I didn’t. I was going to tell you last night at dinner, and then everything happened, and I was so swept up in it?—”

“Are you married?” I squeak out the only possible thought I can imagine would make him look this worried.

He balks. “What? No.”

“Then what? A child? Do you have a kid?”

His brows draw together. “Woman, you bungee jump to conclusions. Don’t you think Will would’ve mentioned that?”

“He didn’t tell me you lived here.”

He opens his mouth, pauses, then says, “Fair point.”

“Are you engaged? Or…moving? Are you leaving?”

He puts a hand on my arm. “Take a breath, and I’ll tell you.”

I release a slow breath on command.

His eyes search mine, looking for answers I surely don’t have. Finally, he speaks, and what he says sends spirals of shock through my body.

“Britney didn’t steal Cassidy’s jewelry back then. And neither did Cory.”

“What are you talking about?”

He braces himself, not meeting my eyes for a long pause. When he finally does, there’s a pain on his face I don’t understand. “Will is the one who stole it. And…and I helped him.”

I can’t fathom a world where this is anything other than a cruel joke, but as I study his face, trying desperately to find a hint of the laughter I know must be there, I come up empty. “What are you talking about?”

“When Will was dating her, he came up with this…plan. It was just about the Hollywood stuff. The necklace and bracelet from whoever. He thought it was harmless, I guess. I mean, we didn’t hurt her. We wouldn’t have. But then…shewashurt. And we got scared. The missing jewelry…it never had anything to do with her murder. But then we couldn’t tell anyone that, or we knew we’d be implicated in everything. It all just happened so close together and…” As he trails off, he’s staring hard at nothing at all. Lost in this impossible memory. “But now that they’re trying to blame Britney, I just…I can’t look you in the eye without telling you the truth.”

Fog fills my brain over his confession, muffling and blurring everything he just told me, trying to unscramble it, force it to somehow make sense. But the truth is, it can’t. What he has just told me is impossible. “I…I don’t understand. How…how?”

“I don’t know all the details. Honestly, I don’t. There was a day when Will knew they wouldn’t be home, so we told your mom he was staying over at my house. Then we drove over to Cassidy’s in the middle of the night. I stayed in the car to keep watch while he broke in. He knew where her mom kept the jewelry, and he used your mom’s key to their house to get in. And we just, I don’t know, we just took it, and that was it.”

“That was it?” I cry. “You stole two priceless pieces of jewelry, not to mention implicated my mom in the crime and cost her so much—her dignity, her clients, her livelihood, her reputation—andthat was it? Butwhy? Why would he even do that? What did he do with it? Was he planning to use the money for college or something? He had grant money and scholarships.” I should stand up and change, but I’m frozen in place.

“I don’t know,” he admits. “I don’t know why he wanted it. I thought maybe you guys were having financial issues, and neither of you wanted to talk to me about it. I know how hard it was with just your mom, and this was right after everyone had started firing her. At the time, I didn’t understand what was going on with that, but Will said people were just nervous. Battening down the hatches or whatever. Still, I knew it was hard and he wouldn’t take or borrow any money from me, even when I tried. Cassidy’s family was rich, you know? They didn’t need the money. I guess I framed it as some sort ofRobin Hoodscenario in my head to ease my guilty conscience. I thought I was helping him help himself in the way he felt like he needed to. I thought it was a stupid ego thing, but I didn’t ask questions. I didn’t need to know. Will has never asked me for anything that wasn’t important, and so I helped him. We didn’t speak about it afterward. I couldn’t. I know it’s wrong and unforgivable. I’m just so sorry.”

I sit up in bed, massaging my temples as if I’m trying to make space for this new reality in my head. “You and Will stole Cassidy’s necklace and bracelet?”

“Yes.”

“On the day she died?”

“No. A few days before. It was bad timing, but that’s all it was, I swear.”

I close my eyes. Thingswerehard then, probably even harder than Mom allowed us to see. But why was Will shoulderingthat alone? It wasn’t his place. And why would he ever think something like this would make it okay?Stealing?Mom would never have allowed it. “He must’ve pawned them. That’s why they found the bracelet earlier and then the necklace now.” I chew my lip in thought. “Britney must’ve gotten the necklace recently, but she would’ve recognized it, right? Unless Justin bought it for her as a gift, but again that doesn’t make any sense. If they found it at a pawn shop, there would be records, right? The police will be able to track it down.” Which might mean they’ll trace it back to Will. I don’t say that part out loud, but we seem to realize it at the same time.

Garrett swallows. “If he pawned it, it would’ve had to be far away from here. Everyone in town was on the lookout for that jewelry. No one would’ve bought it from him.”

“Maybe he waited until you were away in college, but that still doesn’t explain how Britney got it.” I pull my legs up to my chest, bouncing my chin on my knees as I try to piece it all together. “It also doesn’t explain the other robberies. There was the coin collection from Amber’s and the china from Emily’s. Was that Will, too?”

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