Page 85 of The Most Wonderful Crime of the Year

“I played the video, that’s what happened! You were on the video,” she said, softer now. Like she was trying to do a puzzle in her mind. She was trying to make the piecesfit.

“It’s not what it looks like.”

“Really? Because it looks to me like you handed Eleanor Ashley a poisoned tea tray, then lied about it.”

“Well,” he had to concede, “when you put it that way, it’s exactly what it—”

She grabbed a long-handled trowel from a table and held it like a sword. “Stay back.”

“Okay.” He put his hands up. “But just so you know, you’re holding that...” She changed her grip and brandished it. “So well. Seriously. Did you take a class or—”

“You lied,” Maggie said again, like that was the only thing that mattered, and maybe it was.

“I did. And I’m sorry. I know how it looks, but I didn’t poison anyone. I couldn’t sleep that night, so I was going to the library and then I saw Eleanor. I handed her the tray just as it was. You know me, Maggie.”

“No, I don’t!” she snapped.

“Yes, you—”

“I know the guy in the leather jacket.”

Ethan didn’t think it was possible for it to get even colder, but it did. The moon had disappeared behind the clouds and snow fell through broken panes of glass. But none of it mattered. Nothing except—

“You do know me.” He had to make her believe him. He had to make her see. “You know...” And then he remembered. “Someone shot at us!”

“I never saw a shooter.” She was shaking her head. “I heard a bang.”

“How did I set fire to the greenhouse, then? I wasn’t even in the country. When did I sabotage the stairs?”

“That’s not... no.”

“You know all this, Maggie. But right now, you’re going into shock and I need to get you out ofhere. Someone brought you out here for a reason. Someonekept you alivefor a reason.”

“I... I don’t know.”

She did know. And given time and a warm blanket and maybe some mystery chocolate, she’d understand. But at the moment, Maggie was cold and shaking and her hair was full of snow and blood.

“Please, Maggie. What did I have to gain? You said it yourself: Eleanor hasn’t chosen a successor yet.”

“I was wrong.” Even in the dim light he could see her enlarged pupils and too-white skin. She was in the middle of a nightmare and a flashback and a concussion all wrapped up in a literal bow and Ethan was going to do murder.

“Maggie—”

“I was wrong. I’m always wrong.”

It was thealwaysthat broke him.

“Listen to me.” He had to make her see. “I’m not him.I’m not going to cheat on you. Or steal from you. Or—”

“Hit me on the head and tie me up? Or poison me? Because, right now, I’m more concerned about the poison.”

“Which is valid. But I’m not going to do that either.” Her face was changing in the shadows, anger fading and fatigue taking over. She was so tired of that battle. She’d been fighting it for years, and the only thing Ethan wanted was to finish it for her. “It’s okay if you don’t trust me, Maggie. I get it. You weren’t married to a man. You were married to anAm I the AssholeReddit come to life. Just know—just please believe me. I’m not him.”

He watched her struggling to think, to reason. Blood trickled down her forehead and into her eyes and Ethan saw red for lots of reasons. “Sweetheart, I need to get you out of here. I need to get you someplace safe.”

“You lied,” she said again. “And don’t say lying by omission isn’t lying because—”

“I did. I lied because I knew that, no matter what, my fingerprints were going to be on that tray, and the best way to clear my name was to find whoever did this. And I knew that to do that...”