Page 77 of Sweet Like a Psycho (Secrets of Suburbi 2)

Damien glanced over at me. I didn’t know what to think of the information either. She must have developed it after he left. Sometimes trauma brought things like that to the surface.

“It was a boy?” Joel asked. “She had a boy?”

I grabbed the phone away from Damien. “You’d know that if you stayed around, you piece of shit.”

“Stop it,” Damien hissed and pulled the phone away from me. “Sorry about that, my partner isn’t having the best morning. What he meant was why didn’t you stay? To help with the baby? What made you decide to leave?”

“There was no reason for me to stay. There was nothing left for me there.”

I wanted to throttle him through the cell phone.

Damien put his hand out like he was afraid I’d steal the phone again. “Being part of your son’s life didn’t seem important to you?”

“My son? That kid isn’t mine. We never…” his voice trailed off. “It would be impossible for him to be mine. Did she tell people I knocked her up and left?”

Damien glanced at me and then back at the phone. “I think there’s a lot of rumors about why you left. But I’m not calling to discuss rumors. Violet’s in trouble. I need to know if there's anything you can tell us that would prove Violet didn't kill her parents.”

He sighed. “I thought the Violet I knew would never hurt anyone. But she gutted me. So what do I know?” He cleared his throat. “Is there anything else I can help you with? I’m in the middle of work.”

“No, that’s all. Thanks for answering…”

Joel hung up the phone before Damien finished talking.

Damien looked over at me as we turned onto the road that led to Violet’s house. “I think we should take a minute to go over what he just said before you do whatever it is you’re planning to do.”

“I’m not planning anything. I just need to talk to her.” I was planning something and I didn’t have time to think about what Joel had to say. I didn’t believe anything that spewed out of his mouth.

“She lied to you, man. Didn’t she say that Joel was Zeke’s father?”

“She implied it.” I put the car into park and started to unbuckle my seatbelt.

“Tucker, she cheated on Joel. Zeke isn’t his kid. He doesn’t even look like him.” He showed me a picture of Joel.

I already knew they didn’t look the same. But that didn’t mean anything. He just took after his mom. “You believe him over her?”

“Honestly, yeah. She’s lived out here alone for years. She’s…”

“Don’t say crazy.” Violet wasn’t crazy. She wasn’t. “And she hasn’t been alone. She has Zeke.” She had me too. I believed in her. She wasn’t what everyone said she was. She couldn’t be. I stepped out of the car. I had parked right next to her truck, so my mind flipped back to what Zeke said about Violet putting his father’s dead body in it. He was wrong. Clearly he was wrong. Zeke was right that the truck was insanely clean. But there was nothing at all suspicious about it.

“And Zeke isn’t exactly normal,” Damien said as he climbed out of the car too.

I was barely listening to him. When I had looked up from the truck, I had seen Violet in the distance. She was standing at the edge of the lake, staring at it. She had to have heard my car coming up the lane, but she hadn’t turned to start walking back. She was just staring. Transfixed.

“The kid has dreads and wears boots with cargo shorts when it’s sunny out. He’s an odd duck. Which he gets from his mother.”

Zeke wasn’t odd, he was adorable. But things did run in families. Violet had mentioned that she was worried about her mother committing suicide when she was little. She’d been terrified of being left alone with her stepfather. And the way she was staring at the lake…I suddenly knew how she felt. Jesus. “Stay here.”

“Tucker…”

“I just need a few minutes to talk to her alone.” He opened his mouth but I cut him off. “Just five minutes. Please.”

Damien leaned against her truck. “Okay.”

I starting running down the hill and into the woods. “Violet!” I yelled through the leafless trees. But she didn’t turn. Instead, she took a step forward into the lake. “Violet!”

Chapter 27

Violet

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