Page 47 of Second Goal

“You are now.”

Her lips tug down. “I can’t be. Not with everything I’ve done. You don’t know... I...”

“Whatever you tell me, nothing will change. I promise.”

“You’re wrong. But I can’t keep this secret anymore.”

“What secret?”

“I killed him.”

I try not to react, but it’s hard not to. “Who?”

“Ezra. He’d started threatening Lucy. Handling her too rough. Amy was too afraid of him to say anything.” She swipes at the tears on her cheek. “And I understood the fear. He terrified me. There was something dark, vicious in him. Like he enjoyed inflicting pain on people.”

Every muscle in my body is stretched with tension, listening to her.

“Lucy wouldn’t stop crying that night. I think she was coming down with a cold, and I couldn’t get her to calm down.” She looks at me, her eyes haunted. “He grabbed her from me and threatened to put a bag over her head to shut her up.”

“Jesus.”

“He would have. I know he would have.” Her eyes go unfocused and her breath becomes shallow.

“What happened?” I ask her, gently tugging her chin so that she looks at me.

“I fought him.” She swallows. “Hit him so his anger turned on me. He started...” She shakes her head. “Amy grabbed Lucy, and I begged her to leave. To run.”

“She didn’t?”

“No. And I could see the murder in his eyes. The need to cause pain. Not just physical, but emotional. He would have killed Lucy just to hurt me. So when he turned his back and started for her, I struck him over the head with a bat.” She hesitates before continuing, “He just dropped. And there was blood. So much blood.”

“It was self-defense.”

“I know.” Her gaze meets mine and she nods as if accepting the truth for the first time. “But Amy started yelling at me, telling me Cruz would kill me when he got home. She told me to leave. So I did. I left them.” She stands up and she looks shaky as she walks to the window.

“You were scared.”

“I left them,” she repeats, voice hollow. “I should have demanded that she come with me, but I was only thinking about myself. I knew something bad would happen if I left them, and I still ran. I was a coward.”

“Kiley, it wasn’t your—”

“She died.” Her voice is a hollow whisper. “Lucy died because I wasn’t there to take care of her. And I didn’t even know. Not until Cruz tracked me down months later and told me. She had pneumonia...”

I stand behind Kiley and pull her into my arms so that her back is against my chest. I want to tell her everything will be alright, but the truth is, I’m not sure how someone recovers from something like this. And I don’t know how to convince her that none of it was her fault.

“I know you’re not going to believe me right now, but whatever guilt you think you have, it’s a lie, sweetheart.”

She doesn’t respond.

“This friend, Amy, where is she now?”

“Still with Cruz. That’s why I went today. I have to help her. But Cruz has her brainwashed or something. She’s too afraid of him to leave.”

I inhale a heavy breath. “And he’s blackmailing you?”

She nods. “It got worse when he found out about Kane being my brother.”

I press my lips to the top of her head. “We’ll figure this out.”

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