Page 18 of Like An Animal

THE GHOST

I sit in an interrogation room in a corner on the floor, waiting. Hugging the blanket around my body, tears silently fall down my face. I had to do it, consequences be damned.

I know Jeremy will hate me. Hell, the next time he sees me he might kill me, but it’s a chance I had to take.

He would understand if he knew the truth, why I had to make it look like he was the one who did it, but it will be better for him in the long run if he doesn’t know.

He won’t be worried about me or scared of what the consequences are.

I’m not sad about what I did. I’m heartbroken because I know what I’ve lost.

I lost him.

The only way I’ll survive the fallout is if I lock this away, cut away the connection he has to my heart. I’ll need to do it slowly so it sticks for as long as possible.

I love him, but I can’t anymore.

I wipe away my tears as a man in a suit walks in, gray hair slicked back.

“You must be Bronwyn?” he asks, seeming to be feeling a mixture of anger and resignation.

“Yes. That’s me.”

Who the hell is this man?

He nods before he pulls out a chair at the table and takes a seat. “I’m the district attorney that has picked up your brother’s case. You can call me Mr. B.”

I slowly move to my feet. “How long is he looking at?” I ask, my voice cracking.

He slowly shakes his head. “It’s not good. You should get him a good defense attorney. My boss wants me to push for the death penalty.”

The color drains from my face along with the heat and not only do I feel cold but I think I’m going to puke. “No! You can’t do that.”

“It’s not my call, Ms. Durst. Unless you can give me something to show that this wasn’t just a cold-blooded act of violence, my hands are tied. I have to have something I can give my bosses.”

I won’t break Jeremy’s confidence in me.

I won’t tell them what he has told me has happened to him.

That would be just like outing someone not ready to come out of the closet.

He deserves more respect than that, but then one would say he deserves more respect than being framed for a double homicide.

I would be inclined to agree.

However, I will give the D.A. this…

“My father was raping me,” I confess.

His eyes widen as he listens, not interrupting at all.

“Jeremy knew. He caught my father coming out of my room and… I overheard him say that if my father ever touched me again, he would kill him. That would count as third degree self-defense, right?”

That’s the way it works, right? If you kill someone to protect someone else, it’s still self-defense.

“I mean, it could be argued in court if your brother interrupted the act. However, that doesn’t account for his aunt.”

That catches me off guard and makes me immediately suspicious of this lawyer.

“How do you know she was his aunt?”

No one in Grove Hill knew that Kathy was his aunt except me, Jeremy, Xavi, and Massimo. Even public records made it look like Kathy was his mother.

The lawyer looks nervous, but the look evaporates as quickly as it showed up. “He told us.”

That’s possible, but unlikely. It’s a small enough detail that I don’t push it.

“She knew what was happening,” I lie. Honestly, I don’t know if she knew.

Maybe she did. Maybe her and her husband were completely oblivious to each other’s crimes until I spelled it out for them with their blood.

“She was shielding him and the only one protecting me was Jeremy. If he did it, it was to keep me safe.”

I knew he wanted to do it. He wanted to kill them both himself and that would’ve been his reason, too.

“I’ll do what I can to get him the best deal possible.

” He stands up and walks over to me as he reaches into his pocket, pulling out an envelope.

“Mr. Borza asked me to deliver this to you and to ask you to never contact his grandson ever again. The young Mr. Borza deserves a fresh start after this. You understand, da?” His voice transforms from the Americanized accent to a Russian one, as if he decided mid-sentence to stop pretending.

Grandson? But…Then, it hits me. Mr. Borza as in Jeremy’s grandfather.

Never contact Jeremy again?

My lips thin as I open the envelope to find a blank check signed by a Mr. Dimitri Borza. Why, though? I don’t understand. Is Jeremy’s grandfather trying to pay me off so I’ll walk off into the sunset and leave Jeremy to rot?

“Girls like you don’t belong with men like him,” the attorney mumbles before he turns and leaves the room.