Page 29 of The Sweetest Obsession

Good luck with that.

Sniffing around the Jacobins is a good way to end up limping out of town with your butt full of buckshot.

I doubt there’s any evidence left, anyway.

According to the news, the FBI swept in and took everything over from Redhaven and Raleigh PD, and they’re still in the process of analyzing the DNA evidence to see if they can match them to any missing girls in the last twenty years.

It won’t be easy. All they have left are half-digested bone fragments thanks to the grisly way the victims disappeared.

But I can’t help wondering...

What if some of that DNA evidence holds a clue?

What if it points to my brother?

God. Am I ready for that?

Real closure, however awful?

Celeste and Ethan disappeared the same night.

The rumors were the worst part.

People saying Ethan did something terrible. That he killed her, kidnapped her—salacious small-town gossip that left me cringing every time I heard a whisper, or felt wary eyes on me any time I went out in public.

The other kids shunned me, snickering under their breath.

Murder girl.

Like I was guilty by association when my brother wasn’t guilty of anything atall.

I know he wasn’t.

And now I have a little proof.

Ethan neverkilled Celeste Graves and we know who did.

Which makes me wonder if the Arrendells killedhim.

I’ve always wondered from the little things Grant let slip after the whole thing happened. He’d never been willing to tell me much, always trying to protectme.

But he had told me that Lucas Graves thought Montero Arrendell killed his sister, that Celeste was involved with the rich patriarch somehow. I guess that was supposed to comfort me, back then.

All it did was make me more desperate than ever to escape this bottomless pit of a town.

I stare down inside my empty suitcase.

I packed light because—I don’t even know.

Maybe I’m still treating this like a social visit. Not like my life in Miami is over.

No job, my lease on my apartment is almost up, and I can barely afford the rent anyway.

I have a bad feeling I’ll only be going back to Florida to pack up my things and ship them to Redhaven.

Fine.

That’s fine,I tell myself.

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