Page 141 of The Road to Ruined

"They'd been arguing because she was going to move to the other side of the country, but other than that, nothing ever seemed off. They went back to their room sometime after eleven that night, and she was smiling. They looked happy,"Blakely says.

"So, you were the last one to talk to your sister?"

"I was. I was the last one to talk to her, and it was totally normal,"Blakely says."Better than normal, even. It made me hopeful that maybe we could be friends again, but we never got the chance."

"No murder weapon was ever found, nor was your sister's body, and Sebastian was never seen again, correct?"

"That's right,"Blakely says."But we know what happened to my sister, and we know who did it."

"But there is a bit of mystery around it, too, isn't there?"

"We don't want to encourage the conspiracy theories,"my mom says."Those people have made enough of a mess of our lives already."

"But there was another man's blood found at the scene, correct?"

"Yes, but—"my mom starts.

"Take a look at this,"the interviewer says.

The screen fades to a grainy surveillance video from the hotel bar where Declan found me the night before. His hat obscures most of his bearded face—no one would ever guess that this was him.

"Look how happy she is to see you," Hazel says to Declan.

"I never thought I was going to see him again."

"What do you make of this?"she asks."Because a lot of people believe the man Teagan is kissing in this video is Declan De Rossi. They appear to know each other; she embraces him as soon as he sits down. There are some people who think Declan came back and killed Teagan because of what she knew along with her new boyfriend."

Blake shakes her head."Yeah, but I've met Declan De Rossi in person. I've spoken to him face-to-face—it's not him. And if he did kill her, why did he wait until the next night? Why is he hugging her here, and why do they leave together? Why isn't she scared…or angry at him for what he did?"

"If you look at the full video, Teagan talks to the bartender like she knows him, too. It's just how she was,"Austin says.

"But you all described Teagan as shy."

"No,"my mom says."Not shy—withdrawn. She wasn't like everyone else, but she knew how to get what she wanted."

"Anyway, maybe she did know that guy,"Blakely says."I don't know what she did all day when we first got there. Plus, Sebastian was lying about who he was and how they met, too. If he's just an innocent victim, why would he do that?"

The interview segues to a clip about Sebastian Torres, who claimed to be a surgeon in Southern California. They later found out he had been employed by Rancho San Flores while I was there and stopped showing up for work after I left.

The HR director from the hospital describes Sebastian as respectful and a hard worker with a good sense of humor, butafter he stopped coming to work, they realized he'd given them a false identity and never cashed any of his checks.

On paper, Sebastian doesn't exist. No one seems to know him, and he hasn't been seen since.

"I think they started a relationship while she was in the hospital, and he became obsessed. I don't know why she chose to lie about who he was or how they met—I guess because it was inappropriate. Maybe she thought he was still working at the hospital and was worried about him getting fired,"Blakely says.

"She was lonely,"my mom adds."She talked about that a lot—about how lonely she was. She said she missed being touched and that everyone thought she was a freak. I think she just didn't want to be alone."

"Maybe he was one of Declan's followers, and that's how he became obsessed with Teagan—I don't know. It could be why he didn't want to let her go. But my sister is dead, and Sebastian, or whatever his real name is, killed her. That's what I do know. The other blood in the room was probably his because, knowing Teagan, she probably fought until the bitter end."

"There's another theory,"the interviewer says."That the male blood found in the room belongs to the guy she met at the bar the night before—that maybe he came back, and that's what started the fight, and Sebastian killed them both."

"The reason we aren't so quick to believe that is that no one else went missing or was reported missing in or around the area at that time. I mean, he looks like a normal enough guy. If he's missing, why isn't anyone looking for him? Why wasn't there a hotel room that no one checked out of that still had this guy's stuff in it?"Austin asks.

"One last question: Obviously, because of her association with the De Rossis, there has been a lot of talk and speculationabout what happened, but what do you want people to know about Teagan's case?"

"I want the conspiracy theories to stop,"Blakely says."I want The Church of Tomorrow to stop posting photos and stories online claiming they've seen Declan and Teagan alive. I want them to stop using her image because she had a family, and it hurts us. Teagan isn't a god. She's a murder victim."

My parents nod in agreement.

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