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My father’s expression doesn’t change; he doesn’t give anything away. “A syringe?”
“Filled with heroin,” I tell him and this time he breaks eye contact. He pulls his jacket down and clears his throat, obviously uncomfortable.
“Your mother,” he starts to say but doesn’t finish. I give him a moment, again remembering the way my mother lay there on the tiled bathroom floor. “So, this is where that shit is coming from?” His question is laced with feigned anger. More than anything, it’s a veil over his sadness.
I nod once, not trusting myself to respond verbally.
He nods, although he doesn’t look me in the eyes. “Your mother ...” he starts to say again and then stops. He waves the thought away, shaking his head and dropping the discussion entirely. I’ve never seen my father so visibly shaken.
“I don’t see why anyone would want you or Jules dead other than Olsen. Even then, it would have to be because of money and I’ve made it clear to him that the debt owed to me is void. So killing you would most likely be related to some sort of quarrel between the two of you.” He finally looks me in the eyes again before adding, “After last night, there must be something between you two … Undoubtedly.”
I don’t know what possessed Liam to go after Jules last night. I didn’t take him for that kind of a man. An arrogant ass, yes. A man who’d hurt a woman? I huff at the thought. Any man who would do something like that isn’t a man.
“If not Olsen, who else?”
Every hair stands on end and a chill flows down my skin. I question telling my father about Anderson, the entire truth. I have no one else, my back’s against a wall, and this is for Jules. I would do anything for Jules. If that means confessing murder to a murderer, so be it.
I look my father in the eye as I tell him, “I killed Jace Anderson and someone knows.”
I wait for a reaction and the only one I get is that his brows raise slightly and he tilts his head to the side, considering.
“I see,” he says after a moment and again turns away from his seat. His foot taps against the desk as he thinks. “Over Avery, I assume?” he says.
I nod once. He has the dignity to look ashamed for a split second.
“You didn’t love her. You didn’t want her. You told me that much.”
“That doesn’t make it right,” I say and grip the armrests, feeling the anger rise, but he holds up his hands in both defense and understanding.
It’s quiet for a moment, with only the ticking of the clock counting the seconds to keep us company as my father takes in the truth of what happened.
Finally, he looks up and says, “You could have come to me.”
“I was angry at you too,” I say and his eyes spark with indignation at my admission.
As if just now putting the pieces together, his expression changes and he asks, “That’s why Jules went to the police? She knows?”
“Yes.” I swallow the spiked lump in my throat.
“Who is it who knows?” he asks me, thankfully leaving the difficulties with Jules out of the conversation. “And what exactly do they know?”
“I don’t know,” I say and he clicks his tongue against the roof of his mouth. “Jules received an anonymous letter.” The paper lays in my wallet as we speak, but I don’t present it to him. “It was a warning to get away from me with no evidence.”
“Someone knows you killed Jace, warned her to get away from you … but then tried to kill her?” he asks me with confusion.
I nod my head, fully comprehending the lack of logic.
“I don’t think they were planning on doing anything when it came to Anderson. They only told Jules to get back at me. And then tried to kill her to keep the secret silenced.”
“Who would do that?” he asks me.
You, I think, but I don’t say it. I don’t have to, though.
His face contorts with disbelief before he turns completely in his chair and opens a cabinet door. I watch in the reflection of the glass, clearly seeing a safe and what’s more, the numbers of the combination to open it.
It’s the same combination he had on the garage when I was a child. I rip my eyes away from the reflection when he peers backup, holding a stack of photographs in his hand and shutting the door to the safe and then the cabinet with a kick of his foot.
“I wasn’t sure if I should show you this or not,” he says and lets out an uneasy breath. “It would have complicated things between you and Liam.”