Page 41 of Shattered Hearts

“Don’t stay up too late.”

“We won’t, Daddy.”

Zane smiles devilishly. “That’s a fantasy for another night.”

He trots up the stairs, and Stella waits until she hears the shower turn on to say, “So you and Gage did it, huh?”

I pad into the living room and collect glasses and plates full of crumbs. “We did, and it was lovely.”

She doesn’t ask me any more about it until we’re in my old room changing into our pajamas. I sprawl on my bed and tell her every second of the afternoon.

Lying next to me, she says, “He sounds like a romantic.”

I start crying when I describe how I madehimcry, trying to break up with him, and I’m embarrassed I thought he would give me up so easily.

“If he’s as tenacious as Zane, he’ll never let you go.” She pauses. “Zarah, I’ve been keeping things from your brother. I don’t tell him everything because not everything is mine to share. If you don’t feel comfortable telling me, or if you think Zane will react badly, then tell Gage. He loves you, and he’ll protect you. But this is serious. Don’t keep anything to yourself, no matter how small you think it is.”

I rest my head on her pillow. “I promise not to hide things if you don’t.”

“I promise. When we talked to Willow, we found out she was having an affair with Max’s dad.”

“Rourke.”

“Yes.”

“Gage knows.”

“Yeah.”

“What does it mean?”

“Nothing, I guess. Gives me a bad feeling, that’s all.”

I scramble to connect the dots, but my world in the past year and a half has been boiled down to Ingrid, the dogs, and trying to get better. Thinking back to Stella’s escape and her breaking into my room at Quiet Meadows, it’s like I’m trying to read tea leaves. I can’t make sense of anything, and it’s futile to try. The only thing I can do is go back to a beginning that I know.

“Why was Max involved?” I ask.

“What do you mean? He was a journalist.”

“Yeah, but why was he investigating Clayton in the first place?”

Lifting a shoulder, she says, “Because he didn’t think the plan crash was an accident.”

I meet Stella’s bright blue eyes. “Butwhydid he think that?”

She pauses, her perfect white teeth biting into her bottom lip. “He never said. I assumed he was chasing leads for his job.”

“Maybe Willow told Rourke something and Max found out.”

Stella frowns. “Okay?”

I sit up, my heart pounding. “And Ash kills Max.”

“That was a fluke. I was there. He was shooting into the crowd.”

I shake my head. “No. It only looked that way. Willow slipped up, and she accidentally said something to Rourke about the plane crash. Max found out what it was, and she had Ash kill Max to stop him from looking into anything else.”

Stella’s eyes widen, and she sits up, too, clutching at my arm. “No. Not to stop Max from investigating. Clayton and Ash were already going to prison by that point. Ash knew about their affair and he wanted to punish Rourke for betraying Clayton. Ash shot Max to teach Rourke a lesson. You don’t fuck with the Blacks, literally, and get away with it.”

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