His chest tightened, and the knot in his throat thickened. This secret he’d kept hidden for so long was finally exposed.And she’s still standing with me.It was never about not trusting her. He did. It was the outcome he’d feared.
Roxanne started up the stairs, and he followed behind in silence. When she reached for the door, he yanked her behind him. The place was abandoned and off the beaten path, but there was still an element of danger. He did not know if someone was inside, and he wouldn’t take any chances.
He opened the door slowly and walked inside with Roxanne at his back.
The mind was crazy. Years and years had passed, and for a lot of them, he had forced the memory to stay buried. While he always thought of his parents and brother, he rarely allowed this moment to replay over in his head. It was meant to be closure. And for a long time, it was with no thoughts of revisiting it.
Roxanne squeezed his hand, then released him and circled the room. It was vacant, with no furniture or semblance of being lived in. Jonah couldn’t envision life in the house.
“Tell me,” she whispered as she circled the room. Her hair slipped past her shoulder when she looked over at him. Her eyes were soft with a hint of sadness.
Jonah knew what she was asking. It was his sole purpose for bringing her there. Now, at the moment, he wasn’t sure he could. He didn’t regret his choice. He didn’t have remorse for his actions. But he wasn’t proud either. He was in limbo between right and wrong. Good and evil. Jonah didn’t know what side he stood on in her eyes.
“Rox,” he grasped the back of his neck, digging his fingers into his flesh.
“I know where I am, Jonah. I know why I’m here.” She moved toward him, stopping a few feet away. “I know what you did. And I’m still here. So tell me and let this be your final closure.”
His final closure. The last time he’d speak of it. And if he didn’t, it’d always be the one thing standing betweenthem. Between their peace and happy ending.
He lowered his arm to his side and licked his lips.
“Everything I told you was the truth. I just left a lot out.”
Roxanne nodded.
“The police report got a few things right. My parents' initial accident was just that—an accident. Not sure what sent them off the road, but considering the temperature and the rural area, black ice or an animal made sense.” Jonah inhaled a breath. “The autopsy reports concluded that my parents had sustained grave injuries but didn’t die on impact. They were left to suffer for a few hours.”
Her sharp intake of breath had Jonah cupping his mouth and turning his head.
“Sawyer must’ve gotten out of the car. Maybe he thought he could flag someone down or walk for help. I don’t know, but they found his body by the edge of the road. There weren’t any signs of him being ejected from the car, but he had severe trauma to his body that didn’t align with the accident itself.”
“And Rueben Pryor?”
“Like I told you, they’d gotten a report from the bar. The sheriff investigated and came up with every excuse why it couldn’t be him. Even with his multiple DUIs and how he escaped jail time, the sheriff and the department backed his claim. There was nothing we could do.”
“But there was …” Her voice was low and calm as if she was guiding him through his own story.
“Yeah.” He swallowed. “I didn’t know your brothers before this happened. But my uncle knew your dad. I’ll never know how that conversation went, but it got the ball rolling. Met Ethan first with your dad. I remember him looking at me as if he knew the pain I was carrying.”
“Because he did.”
Jonah nodded. “T and Stone were at the next meeting. I don’t know how or where they got the information, but it was laid out like a handbook of everything that’d happened. There weren’t any holes or discrepancies. It was fact and proof, down to finding the car Pryor drove that night and the remnants.” Jonah’s throat tightened. “Sawyer’s blood.”
He cleared his throat. “My first thought was taking everything to the police. But, they’d already proven they were capable of a coverup. And when your dad and brothers laid it all out, I knew he would’ve gotten away with it.”
“He would’ve,” Roxanne whispered.
“They offered me an alternative.” He paused. “And I took it. A few weeks later, I was standing in this house with Pryor strapped to a chair across from me.”
Jonah slowly glanced over to the room on his left, focusing on the middle of the room.
“He said he’d had too much to drink that night and was driving on the road. Didn’t see Sawyer until the last minute and hit him. He stopped and got out to check on him. Claimed he was dead already and there was nothing he could do. Knowing he was drunk, and he’d get in trouble, he left him there. Said he checked on my parents too. They were already dead. There was nothing he could do.” He clenched his jaw, feeling the rage bubbling through his veins. “There were two records of the autopsy. One that I’d been given by the police. And another yourbrothers had found after digging deeper. That autopsy proved something different. My parents died between six and seven in the morning. Several hoursafterPryor stopped. The next morning, a guy on his way to work, saw the wreck, pulled over and called 911. He told the operator, Sawyer still had a faint pulse.Allof them would’ve had a chance to survive if Pryor had just called it in.”
Jonah walked into the room and heard her footsteps following close behind. She slipped her hand into his and brushed against his arm.
“I shot him point-blank. There was no hesitation, no second thought, and when he slumped over and the chair fell to the side, I had no remorse.” He angled his head to look at her. “None. I still don’t.”
She tightened her grip on his hand and looked up at him, meeting his eyes. “And that changes nothing between us.”
