Page 65 of Little Buried Secrets

He acted like it was a personal achievement, like he’d done nothing wrong by meddling in someone else’s relationship. But how had he felt when he didn’t get what he wanted? He broke them up, but he didn’t get the girl.

How angry had it made him?

Angry enough to commit murder?”

“Let’s go back to the start of the party when you arrived and tried to talk to Margot,” I said. “What did you say to her?”

“I explained why I hadn’t talked to her since the day she told me about Sebastian. And yeah, she was still mad about how I’d reacted, which told me she cared about me, even if she spent most of the night telling me to leave her alone.”

“Moving on to Sebastian and Kaia being found in his bedroom together. You sent Kaia to his room that night.”

He turned his palms up. “What can I say? I saw an opportunity, and I took it. Maybe he shouldn’t have been so drunk.”

“What you did was low and classless. It speaks to the kind of person you are.”

Isaac jerked his head back, stunned.

At first I thought he’d have some clever retort. Instead, he said, “Wow, you think you know me. You don’t. You don’t know a thing.”

The more we talked, the more it became clear that he had spent his entire life believing he was entitled. Sure, his mother doted on him, but perhaps a little too much. He seemed to have the idea that he could do anything he wanted to anyone he wanted as long as it served his purpose.

He didn’t hide from it, either.

He bragged about it, speaking without regret.

“Did you see Margot again after the party?” I asked.

He nodded. “The next day. I waited in the parking lot for her to get off work. When she walked out, I told her I heard about what happened with Sebastian, and I let her know I was there for her if she wanted to talk or whatever.”

“And did she?”

“Not at first. Then we got into my car and chatted for a couple of hours. I felt closer to her than I ever had.”

“You must have believed you had a chance with her after your conversation.”

“With Sebastian out of the way, I figured I did. I told her I still had feelings for her.”

“What did she say?” I asked.

“Not what I wanted to hear, that’s for sure. She said she needed time to think about what I’d said. A day went by, then two, and then more. I never heard from her again.”

His plan to lure Margot away from Sebastian hadn’t worked.

I wondered how often he had thought of her since he’d left for college, and if he’d seen her since he’d returned home for the holidays … on the night she went missing, perhaps?

“When Margot didn’t get in touch with you, how did it make you feel?” I asked.

Isaac snorted a laugh. “What, are you my shrink now?”

“Have you ever seen a shrink?”

“I did. Once. I didn’t get anything out of it, so I stopped going.”

“Why did you start seeing a therapist in the first place?”

He cocked his head to the side. “Wouldn’t you like to know.”

“When did you get back into town?”

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