Page 92 of The Pretender

“Stop lying!” She’d never screamed so loud in her life. She poured every ounce of her frustration and anger into it. The words carried on the breeze.

“You’re done, Ted,” Harris said as his fingers slipped over the end of the screwdriver.

“I was a kid, too. I got caught up in the fun of it, never thinking anyone would get hurt. It was a mistake. That’s all.” By the end Ted’s voice lost its power. The words barely rose above the lapping of the waves.

The admission nearly knocked her to her knees. She knew the truth now. He didn’t have to say the words, but to hear them changed everything. To watch him stand there with that shovel, blaming her, when he was the one who’d stopped Tabitha’s heart.

Pain shot through Gabby, threatening to double her over. She stood taller instead. “You were friends with Tabitha. You lived on our family’s property.”

“Don’t do this,” he begged.

“Why should you get off the hook?” The words tumbled out of her now. “You were in on it. You, not me. You let me suffer and had Tabitha cover for you. What kind of person does that?”

Ted held up a hand as if he were trying to block her words. “It was a mistake.”

“Oh, my God.” The reality of it all had her moving closer to Harris, pressing her arm against his. She needed contact, his touch. He was on high alert, but everything inside her shattered. She could feel every defense break.

She’d trusted Ted. Thought of him as family.

“None of this was supposed to happen.” Ted shrugged, but his hands shook. Whatever was going on inside him didn’t match the it’s-okay tone to his voice. “Back then it was tough talk. I never thought it would escalate.”

Harris took a threatening step forward. “You’re a piece of shit.”

“I didn’t know what to do,” Ted pleaded.

He could have stopped it.She wanted to scream that truth but she couldn’t get the words out. But she could say one thing.

“You killed Tabitha.” He could maneuver and lie and make up whatever he wanted about the past, but that fact happened. “You weren’t a kid fourteen months ago. You were an adult and you made a horrible decision that took my sister’s life.”

“Why, Ted?” Harris asked.

“We were arguing. That’s all.” Ted glanced at Stephen, who hadn’t moved since the conversation took such a vicious turn. Ted looked at Gabby again. “She tripped and fell. Her head bounced off the edge of the desk. There was so much blood and I panicked.”

“She knew you were in on the kidnapping all the time.” Knew and never said anything. Not even in confidence. Not as a secret between sisters. Tabitha protected Ted.

That thought became clear in Gabby’s mind. While she’d stumbled through the last decade, her parents had put Ted through college and supported him. They all cheered when he opened his business and settled into a stable life.

Tabitha never said a word. She let him move on even while Gabby couldn’t.

“I got trapped just like she did.” One of Ted’s arms fell to his side. “She told me she’d destroyed the map, but then...” The metal end of the shovel scraped against the ground. “She started doing all this investigating on that crime site. She met people. She fucking fell for someone and thought she should be honest with him about what happened in the past.” Ted scoffed. “It was ridiculous.”

Harris nodded. “It was Craig. But I think you know that. Is that what all this bar hopping with him is about? Befriend Craig and make sure he doesn’t know anything?”

“I figured out that Craig and Tabitha were talking online and Tabitha didn’t even know it. Craig moved back to the area and started his business. We started running into each other. At first it was fine but then he started talking about this woman.” Ted laughed but there was no amusement in the sound. “Hell, he and Tabitha would quote the same damn conversations to me as each told me about their big loves.”

Even through the anger Gabby ached for Tabitha. She’d finally found some real joy with another person and Ted had destroyed it.

“You thought Tabitha would figure out she was dealing with Craig and then tell him the truth.” Gabby didn’t know if it was irony or just horrifying that Tabitha had finally found love and it led to her death.

“She said she couldn’t hold the secret anymore.” Ted shook his head. “The guilt never ventured far away for her. Every time she saw you, Gabby, it got worse.”

Gabby always thought she was the unlucky Wright sister. Now she wasn’t so sure.

Ted pointed at Harris. “I looked all over for those papers. The guesthouse, the pool. That stupid library.”

“You killed her.” Nothing in Harris’s tone said he had one ounce of sympathy for Ted.

Ted shook his head. “It was an accident.”

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