Page 66 of I Will Ruin You

I drove straight to Trent’s house. Parked out front, walked up to the door, and rang the bell. It was nearly dark. The curtain fell back an inch, and I saw a sliver of Melanie’s face.

“Hello, Richard,” she said, opening the door and admitting me.

“Melanie. Sorry for dropping by like this.”

“You looking for Trent?”

“I am.”

“He’s not here. Is there something I can help you with?”

I sighed. “Where is he?”

“Something at the school. What did you do to your head?”

“It’s nothing. Listen, I’ll catch up with him later.”

“I’ll tell him you came by.”

I exited the house, heard her close the door behind me, and got back into my car. And sat. Didn’t turn on the engine. Stewed.

Maybe it was just as well Trent hadn’t been home. I wasn’t able to ask him that favor. It would have been a big ask, and he probably would have said no. I wanted him to come with me to Billy Finster’s. I had this crazy idea Trent could stay out of sight while I got my blackmailer to admit that there was nothing to his allegations. That if he had been abused, I wasn’t his abuser. He’d as much as admitted that in our last encounter when he’d said maybe it was me, and maybe it wasn’t. Trent would be my witness.

It would have been wrong to put Trent in that position. It would have been too risky for him, personally and professionally.

I heard an incoming text. Probably Bonnie acknowledging my earlier message. I got out my phone and had a look.

Not Bonnie.

Don’t fuck with me. Gonna tell everybody. Just you wait. Pay up asshole.

I exited the texting app and stared briefly at the phone’s screen, at all those other apps, including the ones I’d briefly considered deleting.

Voice Memos.

Maybe I didn’t need Trent after all.

Twenty-Nine

Billy, wild-eyed, had snatched the gun up off the table and was pointing it straight at Lucy.

“What did you do?” he shouted. “What the fuck did you do?”

Still sitting, she had her hands partly raised, palms forward, like she was about to be arrested. “Billy, please, put down the gun. You’re freaking me out.”

The gun did not go down. He kept it trained on her forehead, his arm shaking. “Just tell me what you did,” he said, trying to bring some calm to his voice. But he still looked ready to blow her head off.

“It was only a little,” she said, slowly lowering her hands and placing them palms down on the table. “A few pills or candies or whatever. I didn’t think anyone would notice. There was so much of it.”

“How?”

“I took your key, copied it, put it back on your ring,” she said, shrugging, like it was no big deal.

“The bag was locked,” he said.

“I YouTubed it,” she said. “How to open it, zip it back up like it never happened. You should tell your guys it’s pretty easy, they might want to try something a little more secure. I got into it like it was nothing. If I could do it, anybody could do it.”

Make him think she’d done them all a favor, a little demonstration that would prompt everyone to up their game. “I can show you, if you want.”