Page 105 of A Smile Full of Lies
I swallowed hard and faked a soft smile.
“Just… it’s really fucking heavy.”
He nodded slowly.
“I get it, believe me.”
He didn’t. He couldn’t. He had no idea that his former best friend had been one of the four guys who broke into Stonewood Manor the night his family was murdered.
He walked into his office and came back out a second later, contracts in hand. He crossed to the door again.
“I’ll be back around six,” he said, watching me for a beat longer than necessary.
“Okay. Be safe.”
“You, too.”
He nodded, and a second later the door clicked shut behind him.
And I sat there, frozen because I couldn’t tell him what I’d seen, when I looked at that video. Not yet.
If he knew what Thayer had done — what I suspected — he’d kill him. And I’d lose Knox forever.
I didn’t move for a long time.
Not until the sound of Knox’s truck faded down the street and the walls of his house finally stopped echoing with the sound of his footsteps.
I stared at the laptop screen, at the still minimized security footage folder, my hands clenched in my lap. My skin felt too tight, my blood roaring too loud in my ears. My mind kept circling the same thought, like a buzzard over a carcass.
Thayer.
I couldn’tknow, not yet — but fuck, Iknew. I recognized that silhouette. The casual lean. The fuckinglaugh. I’d heard it echo off red solo cups at a hundred college parties. I’d pressed my mouth to that jaw, dug my nails into that back.
I’d trusted him once. So had Knox, and Knox’s family had paid the price in blood.
My stomach turned.
Knox was trusting me now — with the biggest trauma of his life. And if I fucked this up, if I made one wrong move, the fallout wouldn’t just cost him his legacy. It would destroy him.
I pulledup the doc I’d started the night I told Knox I’d tell his family’s story, and titled it ‘The Stonewood Slaughter’.
It was a fresh start for me, for Knox, and for his family’s legacy. Next, I sent a one-line email to Nina:I’m out.Then I opened my texts and fired off a message to Knox.
Me
I’m going to have to interview you for the book. I’m starting work on it today, after reviewing the footage you left with me.
Me
Like we discussed, I’ll self-publish. No Nina. No angles. Just the truth, as approved by you.
My fingers hovered for a beat before I hit send. This wasn’t about a paycheck anymore. It was about him, it was about the people he’d lost, and it was about uncovering the truth… and maybe about finally exposing the Knox family’s murderers. Murderers Knox had desperately wanted to find, for four years, murderers that the police still had no clues about.
I had to do it, even if one of the killers turned out to be the man I used to love. The man who broke me and made me terrified of relationships. The man I might just have to destroy– because if I could prove it, I’d have to act on that proof.
Part of me struggled to believe it of Thayer, no matter how much of an asshole he’d been in the end, but another part of me wasn’t really surprised. Sickened, yes, but surprised, no. But I’d do it, I’d destroy Thayer without flinching, if that’s what it took to save Knox from doing something reckless and stupid. Because if Knox knew who had murdered his family, then he’d go after them, and almost certainly kill them.
My phone buzzed where it sat on the counter beside Knox’s coffee mug.
