Page 122 of Begin Again

“All of this,” Mo adds, her tone sharp. “The sweet tea. The cookie cake. The cupcakes. The whole setup. It wasn’t just about Gabriel, was it? You were planning another move, weren’t you?”

Aubrey’s gaze snaps to Mo, her expression twisting with a mix of fury and desperation. “You don’t understand,” she spits. “I had to. You left me no choice.”

No choice.

My hands curl into fists. She says it like she’s the victim like we’re the villains in her story.

“You brought us here to poison us, didn’t you?” My voice is sharper than I intended, the weight of the accusation slamming between us.

Her silence is answer enough.

Selene steps closer, her voice cold. “Why, Aubrey? Why would you do this? You already got away with it—years of hiding your crimes, covering your tracks. So why now?”

Aubrey’s lips tremble, and for a moment, she looks almost pitiful. But then, she lifts her chin, her mask snapping back into place. “Because you wouldn’t let it go,” she snaps. “You kept digging, kept asking questions. I couldn’t trust that you’d stop. I recognized that boy the moment he showed his face at the cafe. He is the spitting image of his father. I couldn’t trust that he would stop asking questions either.”

Her gaze shifts to me and her voice softens, almost pleading. “I loved Gabriel. I loved you, Teddy. But you don’t understand what it’s like to have everything you’ve built, everything you’ve worked for, threatened. I couldn’t take that chance.”

My jaw tightens, hands curl into fists at my sides. “So your solution was to kill us?”

“I didn’t want to!” she cries, her voice breaking. “But you forced my hand. If you’d just let it go—”

“No.” Mo’s voice is sharp and unyielding, her voice slices through Aubrey’s excuses like a blade. “This was never about us forcing your hand. You made this choice, just like you made the choice to poison Gabriel, to kill George, to silence Walter. This is who you are, Aubrey.”

Aubrey’s composure crumbles, her tears streaming down her face, mixing with the blood from her broken nose, as she collapses onto the blanket. “You don’t understand,” she sobs. “I didn’t want this. I didn’t mean for it to happen this way.”

Selene takes a step closer, her eyes blazing. “You brought us here to kill us. You poisoned the sweet tea, didn’t you?”

Aubrey’s hands shake as she lifts her glass, the liquid inside catching the moonlight. “I did it for Gabriel,” she whispers, her voice trembling. “For us. I thought if I could just—”

“Stop lying,” I snap, my voice cutting through her excuses like a knife. “You didn’t do this for Gabriel. You did this for yourself.”

Aubrey’s face crumples, her sobs turning into a low, desperate laugh. “It doesn’t matter,” she says, her voice hollow. “None of this matters now. You’ve already won, haven’t you?”

She moves suddenly dropping all pretense of subtlety as she grabs the pitcher of sweet tea and downing most of it before we can rip it out of her hands.

“Stop!” I shout, lunging forward, but Aubrey’s already thrown the empty pitcher aside, her breath gasping after almost drowning herself as she chugged the contents of the pitcher. Aubrey wipes at the tea that ran down her face and her neck and chest, as she glares at me and Mo.

“You think you’ve beaten me,” she rasps, her voice trembling. “But I’ll die on my terms, not yours.”

Selene whips out her phone, already dialing. “We need help. Now.”

“No need,” a deep voice calls out from behind us. A group of figures emerges, the FBI agents finally stepping into view. Orion is in the front as he kneels beside Aubrey, a medical kit in hand.

His voice is calm and authoritative. “We came prepared.”

He pulls out a syringe and a small vial of charcoal solution, injecting it into Aubrey’s arm with practiced precision. “This will neutralize the poison,” he explains, his tone matter-of-fact. “But she’ll need further treatment at the hospital.”

Aubrey groans, her head lolling to the side as the antidote begins to take effect. Her defiance is gone, replaced by a vacant, defeated expression.

“You recorded everything,” she murmurs, her voice barely audible.

“We did,” Selene confirms, her tone cold. “And now, everyone will know the truth.”

The agents move swiftly, cuffing Aubrey and lifting her onto a stretcher. I watch as they carry her away, a strange mix of relief and exhaustion settling over me, pressing into my bones like a weight I hadn’t realized I was carrying.

It’s over.

Not the way I wanted—not with some grand, satisfying conclusion where everything makes sense—but justice doesn’t care about what I want. My parents will never come back. Gabriel will never get the peace he deserves. But at least now, she can’t hurt anyone else.