“There you are.” Carter’s voice shatters the silence ringing in my ears. “You’re okay, Hailey. It was a memory.”
I swallow hard, the remembered tears that stung my eyes in the past coming back stronger. Slowly, I peel open my eyes, locking gazes with Broadway who sits across the room, his elbows perched on his knees, a frown marring his brow.
“Get her some water,” Carter says.
Whenever I’ve dipped into my memories before, the return was like crashing into a wall, immediate, jarring. But this is like I’m waking up from a tiring dream. I’m half here, half there, unsure where I should stay.
Koby rises from the couch, his footsteps echoing away. The fridge behind the bar opens, water sloshes into a glass, and he’s back, holding it out for me.
“What did you see?” Carter asks, his arm still wrapped around me. No...botharms. Like a straitjacket, my wrists in his hands, pinned to my sides.
He releases my right hand so I can take the glass, and patiently waits until I’m done drinking. I feel like someone whacked the back of my head.
“The same memory I saw at Noretto’s... longer, though. Sharper. Alex came over drunk.” I hide my face in both hands, my temples pulsing with an incoming headache.
“Alex?” Carter asks, the surprise in his tone not escaping my attention. “You saw Aalyiah’s picture and the flashback was about that piece of shit?”
I nod, inhaling deeply and shaking the stiffness off my limbs. The flashback loops behind my eyes, answering less questions than it poses. They multiply like bacteria in a petri dish. I weigh the significance of what I saw, annoyed that it dissolved at the most crucial moment.
Did I call Aalyiah?
Did we set up a meeting?
Carter might be able to check. He has the means. Ryder could pull the information out of his computer in ten minutes but if I did call her, if we did meet...
She took her own life when she found out about me and Alex.
A pained whimper leaves my lips. More puzzle pieces snap into place. Alex would never have told her about me. He loved her. He wouldn’t risk their relationship, which means I did it.
Itold her.
I dissect all the possibilities, assembling a timeline of events based on what I know. That memory my brain just showed me wasn’t random. None of them were. Each one brought me closer to an answer and this one... this one might be crucial.
I must’ve called Aalyiah, told her about Alex and me. Maybe demanded she stop seeing him.
My intentions were good. I wanted to protect him, but the result was far from good.
Carter was right all along... I killed his sister.
35
CARTER
“She was protecting you,” Hailey says, moving to sit beside me, her feet curled under her butt.
She’s not crying but the sadness shaking her voice guts me. I hate that everything depends on her lost memories. It’s a burden I can’t carry for her. I can’t ease her pain or take away her fear. I can’t do more than hold her and watch as the past slowly eats her alive with every next flashback.
“Me?” I cock an eyebrow. “What do you mean?”
“Broadway, could you get me a glass of wine please?”
He nods, fulfilling the order while the others settle into seats, filling the chairs and couch.
No one speaks. No one asks any question while Hailey gathers her thoughts, looking for the right words to explain what she meant.
“Alex told her he was gathering evidence against your father,” she says, chasing the confession with a sip of wine. “Iguess she loved him so much that she offered her help, but she had one condition... she wanted Alex to ensure your safety.”
I scoff, my hands balling into tight fists. The one thing Aalyiah never should’ve worried about was me. Worrying was my fucking job. She was my little sister. I took care of her and made sure she had whatever she needed. It was never supposed to be the other way around.
