Page 119 of Begin Again

“You don’t know what you’re talking about,” she says flatly, her voice devoid of emotion now.

A chill sweeps over me, sinking into my bones.

Morgan doesn’t blink, her voice steady as she presses on. “Don’t we? Because it’s funny how everything seems to circle back to you, Aubrey. Gabriel was looking into your past, and suddenly, he’s dead. Cyanide poisoning. The same thing you used in your ‘natural remedies’ at the cafe, if not prepared properly can show up in autopsy reports as cyanide poisoning.”

Aubrey’s lips curl into a faint, humorless smile. “You think you’re so clever,” she murmurs, her tone icy. “But you have no proof. You have nothing.”

Theo straightens, his expression hardening. “The truth has a way of coming out, Aunt Aubrey. It always does.”

Aubrey’s gaze flicks between us, her jaw tightening. For the first time, I see the cracks in her armor—real cracks, not the crocodile tears she used before.

“Careful, Teddy,” she says softly, her voice almost a whisper. “You don’t want to push too hard. You might not like what you find.”

The threat hangs in the air like a knife, sharp and glinting.

I don’t breathe.

Theo doesn’t move.

The world feels too small, the air too thin.

But Theo doesn’t back down.

And neither do I.

31

Theo

The air feels heavier now, pressing down on my chest as the silence stretches between us. Aubrey’s mask is slipping, but she doesn’t realize just how close we are to unraveling everything. She thinks she still holds the upper hand, that her lies are enough to keep us in check.

I lean back against the tree, my fingers grazing its rough bark. Aubrey doesn’t know we’ve been one step ahead of her all along—how could she, when she doesn’t realize we’re not the only ones in this?

“I don’t get it,” I say, keeping my voice even. “Why all the secrets, Aunt Aubrey? You’ve always been so…put-together. So perfect. But Gabriel—he wasn’t stupid. He would’ve figured it out eventually. What were you so afraid of?”

Her lips twitch, but she doesn’t answer right away. She’s calculating, weighing her next move.

“You think you know everything, don’t you?” she says finally, her tone sharp. “But you don’t, Teddy. You have no idea what it was like—what I went through. You’re just like your mother—blind. Always believing in fairy tales and happy endings.”

I don’t flinch, even though my jaw tightens at the sound of my old nickname. She’s trying to manipulate me. I won’t let her.

Selene tilts her head, her eyes narrowing. “Then explain it to us,” she says softly, her voice laced with just enough empathy to sound convincing. “Help us understand.”

Aubrey’s gaze flickers to Selene, then to Mo, and finally to me. She exhales shakily, her fingers tightening around the edge of the blanket she’s sitting on.

“It started with George,” she says, her voice low. “Our honeymoon. I thought it was going to be perfect. But then…” Her jaw tightens, and she looks away, her eyes shining with unshed tears. “I caught him with Cassandra. At our reception. In the bathroom. On our wedding night.”

The confession hangs in the air like a toxic cloud. None of us say a word, letting her keep going.

“I was furious. Humiliated. He didn’t even apologize. Just laughed it off, like I was overreacting.” Her voice trembles, but there’s a sharp edge to it now, like a blade hidden beneath velvet. “So, I decided to get back at him. I just wanted him to suffer, to feel as miserable as I did. I told him I had forgotten something at the house we needed for the honeymoon, so we stopped by our house before we left. I thought the elderberries would make him sick enough to ruin the rest of the trip, maybe even scare him a little. I didn’t know…” Her voice falters, and she looks down, her hands clenching into fists. “I didn’t know it would kill him. That wasn’t the plan. He was such a great skier, he should have been able to avoid the tree even sick.”

A muscle ticks in my jaw, rage bubbling beneath my skin.Should have been able to avoid the tree?Like she’s blaming him. Like he was the one who fucked up.

Selene exchanges a glance with me, her expression unreadable. “And Walter?” she asks, her voice calm but pointed.

Aubrey’s head snaps up, her eyes narrowing. “Walter wasn’t supposed to know,” she spits, her tone venomous now. “He wasn’t supposed to find out about my son. Nobody was. I did everything right—I kept it anonymous and handled everything through the courts. But he found him on that fucking DNA site. He figured it out all thanks to Cassandra putting it in his ear about how I disappeared after George’s death for months.”

We know the answer but ever the actress Selene’s brow furrows. “Disappeared?” she echoes. “Why?”

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