Page 23 of My Stupid Heart

“I don’t understand,” Molly said.“Why didn’t you tell me about you and Adrian?I never would have dated him if you asked me not to.”

“First, he slept with Kate Gubler, but I made sure that ended.”

“How?”Ryker asked.

“I told her husband.It ended their marriage and her relationship with Adrian.”

“Does Kate know?”Molly asked.

Susannah shook her head.“Anonymous email.But then Adrian took up with you.The cameras were meant to frame him as a pedophile.That he was watching Sasha.If the town thought he liked little kids, but I showed him that I didn’t believe that to be true, he’d see that I still loved him and he’d realize he still loves me.We could move away together.Start fresh.”

“Youinstalled the cameras in my house?”Molly exclaimed, her eyes bigger than basketballs.

“But since Adrian denied setting up the cameras, and they didn’t have enough proof to pin it on him …” Susannah was confessing to everything.Why?

“Did you …” Molly swallowed.“Did you kill Anthony, too?”

Susannah shrugged.“Sent a message to you.I didn’t enjoy it.But something needed to be done.To keep you and Adrian apart.To get the town to turn on him so the only person he could turn to was me.”

“There were two people on the camera.Two shadows,” Ryker said.

“Olivia and I were framing Kate to take the fall.”

Why was she confessing?Why was she here?This didn’t make any sense.Surely, Molly told Susannah what Ryker did for work—or used to do for work.The woman was a fool to come to the house, even with a gun.She had to have a bigger plan.Unless she’d absolutely fallen off her damn rocker from the debilitating jealousy.And this was the plan.Come, confess, and wield a gun.

He glanced down the hallway at the closed bedroom doors.Thank god Sasha was in her room fast asleep.He wanted to pull out his phone and dial 9-1-1, but the crazy lady with the gun had some alert gray eyes that didn’t leave him.

“Why was Olivia helping you?”Molly asked.

“Because she’s my sister?”Susannah said, a confused expression on her face, like Molly should know this.

Molly looked like her head was going to explode.Clearly, she did not know this.

“Well, half-sister and we only just found out a few years ago when we realized my mom had an affair with her dad, who was also her boss.We did the online DNA tests and figured it out.”

“Why keep it a secret?”Molly asked.“I don’t understand.I don’t understand any of this.”

“You know this town survives on gossip.We love it, we just don’t want to be part of it.Olivia’s vendetta is against you.You dated Adrian, and when you ended it with him, he took it out on Sasha.Benching her hurt the team.And when Sasha quit, that hurt the team even more.Olivia was annoyed enough when Sashawason the team because Camden rarely got to play.But with Sasha leaving, the team sucks and won’t make playoffs.”

“So, you hatched this plot as revenge because your ex loves me and not you, and Olivia jumped on the bandwagon because of the soccer team?”Molly was doing a fantastic job of keeping Susannah talking.She was asking all the right questions and remaining as calm as anybody could under the circumstances.

“People have done crazier things for love.”

“I suppose,” Molly mused, her gaze skittering to Ryker.“I just … I don’t understand.W-we’re friends.I trusted you.”

This story was getting more convoluted and bizarre by the second.Ryker still couldn’t understandwhySusannah came here and was confessing everything.Unless, she felt painted into a corner and realized there was no way out, so she decided to leave as much devastation as possible in her wake before ending things.Was murder-suicide her plan here?Given the deranged glint in her eyes, Ryker wouldn’t put it past her.

“We looked into Adrian’s history and only discovered he dated Kate.But not you.Why?”Ryker asked.

“Susannah is my middle name.I only started going by it recently.”

Why?

The questions just kept mounting up.

This woman was nuts.

Then it hit him.

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