“Of course, I fucking found the blog post, Rebecca. I found it the same day you admitted to finding it. And that night? She’d come to me after the attack sobbing, breaking down, asking to use a car my parents wouldn’t miss because she needed to dispose of something, and quickly.”
Silent tears streaked her face. “You tried to help her dispose of someone she killed.”
“A disgusting, useless, perverted human being, yes. And the thing that really grinds my gears is that all the signs were there. You and your family were so blind to what was happening with Maggie under your roof that no one suspected what was going on. But, by siding with your sister, you put a target on your back.”
Her eyes widened. “I only sided with my sister because I was fed lies, Joseph!”
“It doesn’t matter!” I roared.
I brought my voice back down to a normal level when I saw Rebecca actively flinch away from me. I didn’t want her to be scared, but she had to know.
Because if she kept digging, I wouldn’t be the only person harassing her to stop.
“Listen to me when I tell you--.”
She put her finger in my face. “No, you listen to me. The only reason why I ever sided with my sister was because I knew none of this. The night we went to the hospital, there was no mention of a body, no mention of drugs, no mention of any of this. Just an accident, some sort of hit and run--.”
“That was supposed to kill her, Rebecca.”
She swallowed hard. “What?”
“That night, when we were disposing of the body, a car came out of nowhere and t-boned us on her side of the car. The only reason why I didn’t get hurt was because I was the one dragging the fucking body into the ditch. One night, I’m stealing one of my parent’s cars they hadn’t used in months and I’m hauling a dead fucking body in it, and the next second I’m dragging the fucking thing down to a sewer drain in the woods before I hear this disgusting crunch. And even though Maggie lied her way out of it like she always did, while my family tried to bury me in a private school across town, I knew in the pit of my gut that the cartel she worked for had sent someone to kill her. To tie up loose ends.”
“This is ridiculous,” she said breathlessly.
“Look in my eyes and tell me I’m lying to you. You seem to be so good at that.”
She stared me down, and the more she did the more her tears fell.
“You did nothing to expose your sister’s lies, and because of that you put a target on your own back,” I hissed.
She shook her head mindlessly. “I never sided with her. I never meant to cover for something so horrendous. I just wanted my big sister to be okay.”
“You lied, just like she did.”
“Because I’d been lied to as well, Joseph!”
I crouched down and gazed into her watery orbs. “It doesn’t matter. Not to them. Not to anyone involved in this. All that matters is that when push came to shove, you refused to see what was going on and assumed I was in the middle of it all because I wore a leather jacket and hated my parents while Maggie kept herself prim, proper, and close to her family. You stereotyped us. You pigeonholed me. You knew what was going on--.”
“I didn’t know anything!” she shrieked.
I grabbed her arm and yanked her up before I shoved her into a wall. “Do you know what it’s like to live as a constant disappointment? To give every dime I ever made back to my father as an apology for something I didn’t do? My father is the reason why that body was never found. He’s the reason why it never came to light what happened that night. He paid over seven million dollars to make all of it go away for everyone, and I’ve been indebted to him ever since. I’ve been doing his dirty fucking work ever since, while becoming a stain on my family’s name when I wasn’t even the one in charge of that night. Do you know what that’s like? To stare into the face of your betrayer’s sister and know damn good and well she’s not getting what she deserves because some rich fuck like my father assumed I was at the middle of everything, too, and made me pay? But not her?”
Her eyes widened. “That’s why you treat me the way you do, isn’t it? You’ve been punishing me the way you want to punish her.”
I backed away from her. “Fuck you and your sister.”
And as I made my way out of her apartment, I rushed to the first hallway trashcan I could find.
Before I ripped the lid off and vomited.
27
Rebecca
I sat there all night.In the corner of my kitchen with only the light in my bedroom still on, I sat there and stared at the wall. I didn’t sleep. I didn’t move. I didn’t eat. I didn’t drink. I just sat there and turned everything over in my head as I tried to make sense of it all.
And somehow, it did make sense.
