“No,” Kellan says in a clipped tone. “That’s not what we agreed on.”
“What do you expect me to do? I’m gonna start showing soon.”
“I don’t want a fucking kid,” he growls.
She begins to sob. “I can’t play it off as Bruce’s.”
“Then you should have taken your birth control correctly.”
“We need to act sooner,” she whispers. “We can pull it off—”
“I’ll do what I want when I want,” he snaps, interrupting her.
“Please?” Celeste begs. “Don’t do this.”
“It’s over,” Kellan growls. “It’s been over. But you refuse to believe it.”
“You can’t do this …” Celeste’s voice trails off. “Austin.” She sounds surprised. “I didn’t expect you to be home so soon.”
“I’m going to bed,” Austin answers, and my chest tightens.
I’ve already heard this once, but that doesn’t make this time any easier. She had just arrived home, not knowing what she walked into. In less than ten minutes, she’s gonna be dead lying on her father’s kitchen floor.
“Have you told her?” Kellan demands.
“Tell me what?” Austin asks. No one answers her. “I’m tired, and it’s too late to play games with you, Kellan. What has she not told me?”
“All her secrets,” he says simply.
“Kellan, don’t—” Comes Celeste’s panicked voice.
“I don’t have time for this,” Austin says.
“Why do you think you’re here?”
“Excuse me?” Austin asks Kellan.
“It’s ’cause I wanted you here,” he answers.
And my jaw tightens. That motherfucker was playing us from the beginning. I should have done more than just break his fucking jaw before I killed him.
“What?”
“I was with Celeste when your mother called her and said that you were too much for her. That it would make Celeste look like a saint in this city to take in Bruce’s troubled teen. But she didn’t want you. She wanted Lilly.”
“What?” Austin asks again. You can hear the panic starting to rise.
“So you still haven’t figured it out yet.” He sounds proud of himself. “What she did. What she is capable of?”
“Don’t,” Celeste growls at him.
“She can keep a secret, babe,” he tells her. “Celeste, here, killed Betty, Cole and Lilly’s mother.”
Monroe’s brows pull together in confusion. They don’t understand it. Why would he? No one would understand why Celeste would kill my mother. They don’t know that Lilly’s father is Bruce.
“It was an accident,” Celeste says defensively.
“Don’t lie,” he growls.
