Page 98 of A Killing Cold

“Sleeping upstairs,” she says.

“You can go, if you want,” I tell her. She isn’t part of this.

“I think I’d like to stay,” she says. Everyone else is seated—Rose, Trevor, and Alexis on the couch, Louise and Magnus in the chairs to either side of it. Quite the tableau.

“Well?” Louise snaps.

“Okay, I’ll start.” I step forward. “My name is Theo Scott, but it wasn’t always. I was born Rowan Cahill. Mallory Cahill was my mother.” It feels important to say it out loud; it feels sacred.

“Holy shit,” Trevor says, mouth dropping open. Rose lets out a noise and covers her mouth, but it might be an act. Louise and Magnus don’t look surprised, and of course Alexis isn’t, either.

“Mallory Cahill? That was…” Paloma begins, brow creased as she recalls the name.

“Liam’s little mistress,” Louise says, fingers tapping on the arm of the chair.

“That’s a lie,” Connor growls.

“Connor,” Rose says softly, “I know that you have never wanted to believe it. I know that you loved him. I did, too. But good people make terrible mistakes sometimes.”

“Connor’s right. Liam wasn’t sleeping with my mother,” I say. To Alexis, I add, “Those photos you found. He helped her take them so that she’d have proof of what Nick was doing to her. He was hiding her until she could figure out where to go next.”

“No. That can’t—” Alexis says. Conflicting needs war within her. If her father wasn’t having an affair, one kind of pain is eased. But thatmeans that her anger that day was utterly misplaced. A senseless thing made all the more wretched.

“He didn’t tell you, Rose. He didn’t tell anyone. Because he was trying to keep her safe. Which you knew, didn’t you.” I look at Magnus. At Louise.

“I won’t let you say these things about my son,” Louise says. “Nick would never—”

“She’d tried to leave him before,” Magnus interrupts. His head is bowed, hands laced. “He nearly killed her. Threatened to kill you.” His eyes lift to mine, and something passes between us. Acknowledgment, maybe. It’s time for the truth, and we both know it. “Liam was setting her up with a place to go under a new name.”

“I thought it was her fault,” Alexis says, almost a whisper. “I wouldn’t have… I didn’t know.”

Rose turns to look at her, but it’s Paloma who speaks. “Lex, what did you do?” she asks, voice hoarse.

Alexis stands. Her hands twist together. “I came—I was just going to talk to her. I didn’t mean for it to happen.”

“Alexis, we don’t need to do this,” Louise says.

“Yes, we do.” I step forward. “Alexis, tell them.”

She draws a ragged breath, steels herself. “I drove up here. I brought Dad’s rifle. Mallory was here. We argued, and I—I shot her.”

Rose lets out a moan. Paloma braces a fist against her stomach, drawing in a sharp breath.

“You understand why we didn’t tell you the truth,” Louise says to Rose. “Alexis made a mistake. A wretched, terrible mistake, one that we have tried to stop from causing any more suffering.”

“You covered up a murder,” I scoff.

“Anaccident. One that could have destroyed Alexis’s life, too. Or would the world have been a better place with her sitting in a jail cell this whole time?”

“Alexis, it’s really true?” Rose asks in a soft voice. Alexis nods miserably.

“You didn’t know?” Connor asks, giving her a hard look.

“Of course not.”

“But you drugged Theo.”

“What?” She looks so genuinely startled, I have to believe her.

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