“I’m guilty, Dad.” She had fully expected a weight to be lifted off her shoulders at the admission, but for some reason, the pressure had doubled. “There’s no reason for a trial, and I won’t put the family through that.”
Her voice sounded strange to her own ears, detached and hollow. Her hands, still wrapped around the mug, neither trembled nor tightened. They simply existed there, holding onto the porcelain because that’s what hands were supposed to do.
Unable to sit there any longer while her father stared at her as though he didn’t recognize the woman in front of him, she leaned forward and set the coffee on the table.
“I need a minute,” Kinsley muttered, rising from the couch. Her joints were stiff, probably from the fatigue that had settled into her bones overnight. “I’ll be right back.”
George opened his mouth to protest, then closed it again and nodded instead. Maybe he needed a few moments to himself, too.
“Take all the time you need. I’ll be right here.”
Kinsley sensed the intensity of her father’s stare as she walked out of the living room and through the kitchen. His concern was palpable, almost as heavy as the guilt she carried. But she didn’t regret what she’d done. Not really.
Calvin Gantz had brutally murdered three women. He had slashed their throats and stood in front of them as the blood spilled from their bodies, wanting a front row seat to witness their deaths. Kinsley and her partner had made the arrest, and it should have ended there. It should have been the end of his story.
Had it been someone other than her father who’d represented him, would she even be in this situation? On her way to a life sentence that should have been his to endure?
Calvin Gantz had been found not guilty, his freedom secured by the very legal technicalities George Aspen had dedicated his career to navigating. The system had faltered, allowing a monster to slip through its fingers. And afterward, Calvin had turned his venomous attention toward Kinsley, blaming her for the spotlight that had exposed his horrific deeds. He had twisted the narrative in his own mind, portraying her as the vengeful stalker who was obsessed with ruining him. In the shadows of their small town, the whispers had only grown louder, painting Kinsley as the villain in a story where she had been anything but.
And no matter how hard she had tried to distance herself, Calvin’s relentless harassment had tightened around her like a vice. It was on a desolate country road, far from prying eyes, that he had finally admitted his plan. And he’d left no room for doubt about his intentions.
His sole objective had been to kill her niece. Beautiful, sweet, innocent Lily Aspen. His description of what he’d planned for her had ignited a primal fear within Kinsley, and in that moment, she had squeezed the trigger.
She rubbed her right index finger as she moved mechanically through the kitchen toward the half-bath near the garage door. Her other hand brushed against the wall as she went, not for support but for connection to something solid, something tangible. The world had taken on a dreamlike quality since last night, when Shane Levick had confronted her about Gantz’s murder.
“Did you kill Calvin Gantz?”
She recalled staring at Shane’s chest afterward. He’d been so still, holding his breath while waiting for her to answer. She’d come very close to lying, but the truth had tumbled from her lips before she could snap her teeth together.
The one thing she’d kept to herself was what had transpired afterward. She’d called her older brother after she’d fired her weapon. Noah hadn’t hesitated, always the faithful sibling, and he’d driven straight to her location. Together, they had wrapped the body in a dirty blanket, loaded him into the trunk of his own car, and driven it out to Terrapin Lake. The water had accepted their offering without question, swallowing the vehicle, the body, the evidence, and giving it all a final resting place.
One thing was for certain, Kinsley would not allow her brother to pay for her sins.
She closed the bathroom door with a gentle click, her fingers lingering on the handle as though it were the last anchor to the world outside. The half-bath was small, but right now its confined space was like a mercy. Her legs gave way beneath her, and she slid down against the door until she was sitting on the cold tile floor, her body folding in on itself.
The first sob tore from her throat before she could stop it. Her shoulders heaved as she pressed her fist against her mouth, trying to muffle the sounds of her breakdown. She didn’t want her father to hear her lose control. She didn’t want him to comprehend just how terrified she was of what waited for her on the other side of this day. Her body shook with the force of emotions she had kept carefully contained since she’d opened the front door last night and found Shane standing on her porch.
“I have one question for you, Kin. Just one. And I want the truth.”
It was in that moment that she’d accepted her life was over. By the time she’d explained everything, omitting Noah’s role that night, she’d had only one request.
“I need twenty-four hours. Please, Shane. I need to say goodbye to my family.”
Another sob wracked her body, and her tears flowed freely now. She’d waited until first light before phoning her father, who had shown up on her doorstep without hesitation. He’d spent a good portion of the morning trying to convince her to enter anot guiltyplea until he could come up with some viable defense, but it had been around noon when he realized his cause was lost. She’d already made up her mind, and she would never put her family through such an emotionally draining ordeal.
Especially not Lily.
Kinsley pressed her palms against her eyes, applying pressure until starbursts of light appeared behind her eyelids. The physical sensation helped ground her, pulling her back from the edge of complete despair. She pursed her lips and slowly exhaled a trembling breath.
It was time to drive over to her parents’ house. She needed to explain to her family what was about to happen, and she didn’t want them anywhere near the station or the courthouse when everything came crashing down.
Was she taking a moment to wallow in self-pity?
Maybe.
But she’d needed a brief window to grieve for everything that would never be. She would give herself a few more minutes, and then she would straighten her spine and face what was coming.
She had made her choice, and she had to live with the consequences.
