"I don't know. Leah said she'd found something out. She wanted me to help her, like find whoever was behind this awful account that was bullying other girls, especially Leah, but I didn't want to. I was scared. I figured it was one of the other girls, and I didn't want them to treat me like they did Leah. I didn't want to help her. She was gonna tell me everything when I got there, in person, only that's not what happened. She just... it was like she got around Chloe and the rest of them, and she changed back to who she was before. She always wanted to be in their group, more than anything. Suddenly, she was one of them. They'd whisper in her ear and laugh at inside jokes, saying I wouldn't understand. I kept trying to get her alone, to talk to her, to see what was going on, but she just ignored me."
Guilt twisted in my chest. I dug my fingernails into my palms. I'd pushed her toward these girls. I'd wanted this for her so badly. I'd wanted belonging for both of us.
"We went back out for the photo shoot. At midnight. It was Chloe's idea. It was Chloe, Leah, and me. Chloe said she needed me the take good pictures. She said she couldn't trust anyone else to get the angles right. But then Chloe wanted Leah to stand near the edge, and I stopped shooting. I got scared and told her not to go so close."
King nodded encouragingly at her. "Keep going."
Mia sucked in a nervous breath. "Leah said, 'Don't be such a pick-me. You're so desperate it's embarrassing.' She said it like it was funny, like it was a joke, but it wasn't. It didn't sound like Leah. Chloe laughed and said, 'It's not like anyone wants to look at you anyway.'"
The pen in Callahan's hand was still now. Even she didn't interrupt.
Mia pressed both sleeves to her face like she hated the words coming out of her mouth. "I was so hurt, so upset. I couldn't think straight. I—I slapped Leah."
Indignation burned like a brand in my chest. My gentle, anxious, people-pleasing daughter had struck her best friend. The image wouldn't form in my mind. It didn't fit. But the shame radiating from her being told me it was true.
Camille's hand went to Mia's forearm. "Mia, stop."
But Mia kept going. "I didn't even think. My hand just… It just happened. I was so upset. Her nose started bleeding. She put her hand up, and blood went on her fingers and then on my dress because she touched me. She was trying to grab me, but I was so mad. Chloe just stood there, watching."
"What happened next?" King asked gently.
"She said something mean about my dad, about how he died."
Anger flooded through my veins. Marcus had been everything to both of us. For Leah to use our deepest wound as ammunition in a petty teenage fight made my hands curl into fists. I wanted to defend Mia, to rage at a dead girl.
"I got so mad," Mia whispered. "I was crying so hard, I couldn't even see straight. Leah kept looking at Chloe like she was a goddess or something. I told Leah she'd picked them over me, over our friendship. Leah came toward me. She grabbed my arms and I pulled away. I didn't mean it. I swear it. I just wanted space. I pushed her. Hard. In the chest."
There it was. The truth I'd been dreading and denying in equal measure. My daughter had pushed her best friend off a cliff. Accidentally, I believed that with every fiber of my being, but the fact remained: Mia's hands had sent Leah over the edge.
The weight of it pressed down on my lungs until I couldn't draw breath.
Camille cut in. "Mia, that's enough. Detectives, my client is distraught. Anything further risks?—"
"No." Mia's voice was small but firm. "I need to say it. I need them to know."
Camille's jaw tightened. She gave a single, reluctant nod. "Against my advice," she said for the record.
Callahan kept her expression carefully neutral, but I caught the glint in her eyes, the smug look of a detective who'd just been handed a signed confession. King's posture shifted, his shoulders squaring as he leaned forward. They'd scented blood in the water.
"I lost my balance and fell onto my hands and knees. That's how my dress got dirty. I thought… I thought she was fine. We were both fine. I was on my knees, looking down at my dress, thinking I'd ruined it and you would kill me, Mom. Then there were these, like, crashing, thrashing, thudding noises. Leah screamed.”
Guilt and remorse filled her voice. Tears streamed down her cheeks. Camille handed her a tissue, and Mia held it to her face, her breathing jagged.
"I heard her fall, Mom. I heard her. I looked up, and she just wasn't there anymore. She was standing there one second, and the next she was gone."
I tried to imagine it—the terror as your best friend vanished into the darkness, the sickening sounds that followed. Mia had been alone with that horror for days. She'd carried it, kept it hidden deep, let it eat her alive from the inside. And I hadn't known.
Mia's breath hitched. "I scrambled down the bluff to help her. I crouched beside her, but I had to hold onto a branch to keep from falling. There was blood. Her body was all twisted up. She wasn't moving. I begged Chloe to call 911. I'd left my phone back at the house. My hands were shaking so bad. I put my fingers on her neck. I couldn't find a pulse. I tried her wrist. I didn't know if I was doing it right. I said her name. Over and over. But she wasn't moving. She didn't move."
She pressed the tissue to her mouth and breathed through it, frantic, shaking, devastated. She was only fourteen. Just a child. I would have given anything to take her place, to take her pain, shame,and grief, but I couldn't do anything but watch her shatter in front of me.
"I climbed back up," Mia said. "In the dark, I almost fell a few times. I was so scared. I told Chloe to call 911, to get an ambulance, to help Leah. I begged her."
"Why didn't you make the call?" Callahan asked.
"Chloe said she was going to help me. She said she knew what to do, and I had to trust her. Leah was already gone. We couldn't help her. We could only help ourselves. I couldn't think. Leah was…she was…She was dead."
She pressed her fist to her mouth, made an agonized noise in the back of her throat. "Chloe said no one would believe that it was an accident. We had to go back to the house and leave her like that and not touch anything else. She said we should say we went to bed, and we didn't see Leah leave. That she would say the same thing as me. If we had the same story, everyone would believe us. She hugged me and said she would make it all better. She could fix it. I just had to do everything she said."
