Page 59 of Mad As Hell

I nodded. Unsure what to do, I pulled out the chair at Ryan’s desk and sat.

Ash came into the room only enough to close the door and lean against it. “I wanted to see how you were.”

“Fantastic,” I replied with obviously forced enthusiasm.

He gave me a small smile. “Yeah, I guess that sounds about right.”

“Here to plead your best friend’s case?” I asked.

“Hell no,” he answered with a snort. “Ryan fucked up. He’s got to dig himself out of this mess. I told him to take a minute and think, but…”

“But he didn’t,” I finished softly. “Thanks for trying.”

“You’re good for him, Maddie,” Ash added. “Probably too good for him. Hell, all of us. I get you were dealt a shitty hand growing up, but your sister was a bitch for dropping you into this world without more of a heads up.”

“It was only supposed to be for the summer,” I mumbled, still feeling some deep need to defend her actions. Maybe I understood her a little better now. After barely two weeks of seeing Gary’s true colors, as much as I wanted to believe that I wouldn’t sacrifice someone else to take my place right now, if I’d had seventeen years of this? My morals might not be so black and white.

“No offense, Maddie, but that’s bullshit.” Ash shook his head. “I didn’t know your sister all that well, but I don’t believe for a second that she didn’t plan on using you as her escape hatch.”

An uneasy sensation prickled up my spine. “What are you saying?”

“I’m saying, have you actually seen a body? Are you sure Madelaine’s dead?” Ash’s flat voice rocked me to the core.

I clasped my hands together in my lap and tried to keep my expression neutral. “Gary had her remains brought over.”

“Remains,” Ash said almost carefully. His gaze shuttered. “So there wasn’t an actual body to identify?”

“Well, no.” My pulse pounded in my veins as I considered what he was saying.

No. No way. It wasn’t possible.

Was it?

Gary would have known if something shady went down with Madelaine. After everything that had happened, I was painfully aware of how much he knew.

He’d known what Adam was doing to her. He wasn’t the type to miss a damn thing. Hell, he’d known who I was all along. Why would he let Madelaine just disappear?

The truth made me queasy.

Because Madelaine had proven over and over that she wouldn’t be controlled. And I could be. Gary had trotted out my doped-up mother, and I’d immediately backed down. He’d threatened Bex, and I’d shut up instantly.

I could be manipulated in a way that she couldn’t.

Ash sighed and rubbed the back of his neck. “Look, I can check it out, if you want.”

I nodded numbly. It had been one thing to consider that my twin had died before she could come back and save me.

But believing that my sister would have set me up and left me to carry on her miserable life? That was unfathomable. With all the many faults I’d unearthed about my twin, I just couldn’t picture her setting me up so heartlessly.

As far as I was concerned, Madelaine’s death in the fire would remain a tragic accident.

“I also unlocked more stuff on your phone,” he added, sensing it was time to change the topic. He pulled it out of his back pocket and handed it to me.

I studied the dark screen for a moment. “Anything worth knowing?”

He shrugged. “Don’t know. I didn’t look.”

I frowned at him as my fingers tightened around the case. “You didn’t?”

---