“They have connections everywhere,” I said. “Lawyers, cops, and judges in their pockets. So even if you’re right, and it turns out that I don’t have enough evidence… they can just manufacture more for me.”
Cherry laughed. “You mean you’ll get them to make fake evidence to use against me?” she said. “That’sveryethical of you, Violet. I’m sure your sister would besoproud of you turning out to be such a conniving little liar.”
I didn’t flinch. “Like I said, the Club’s connections can andwillmanufacture more evidence against you. It’ll look real, and it’ll be enough to guarantee a conviction and a life sentence,” I said. “All I need to do is tell them that I think you did it, and their people will get to work on building the case against you. And then you’ll spend the rest of your life in prison.”
She sneered. “Even if they create a whole mountain of solid-looking evidence against me, I’ll still never say the words, ‘I’m guilty’.Never. No matter how long they lock me up for. And then you’ll never have the answers you want, will you?”
“I had a feeling you’d say that too. So I’m willing to make a deal with you.”
“A deal?” she said incredulously. “Whatdeal?”
“Like I said, I know you killed my sister. But I also figured you’d never tell me why. Not without some sort of encouragement,” I said. I lifted my palms and took a deep breath. “So here’s the deal. I’m calling the cops, turning you in, and getting a case built against you either way. I fully admit that I’m doing that. But if you tell me why you killed Calista, I’ll wait twenty-four hours before I make the call. So you’ll have all that time to run and hide. Just like the Selection hunt.”
She scoffed again. “Bullshit.”
“No bullshit. I obviously don’twantto give you an opportunity to get away, but I can see that I’llhaveto do it if there’s even the slightest chance you’ll give me the answers I want,” I said. “So, like I said, I’ll give you those twenty-four hours to run and hide. If you're smart, you might just get away. You'll have to live the rest of your life in fear of getting caught, but at least you'll be free. But if youdon'ttell me why you killed Calista... I'm calling the police right now. I'll never know why you did it then, and that will haunt me. But at least I’ll know that you'll be locked up forever, which is what you deserve.”
Cherry was silent for a moment, just staring at me. I pulled my phone out of my pocket and held it up.
“So what’s it going to be?” I asked, waggling my phone. “Should I call the cops right now? Or are you going to take the deal and run?”
“You think you’re so smart, don’t you?” she finally muttered. “Just like your sister.”
“There she is. The real Cherry,” I said, brows rising. “You usually hide her so well with those acting skills of yours. Just not well enough, I guess.”
“Go fuck yourself,” she hissed.
“Oh, so Iamcalling the cops now? Okay then.”
I started dialing. Cherry’s eyes widened, and she lunged for my right hand, trying to snatch my phone. I lifted it higher, holding it out of her reach.
“You don’t understand!” she shouted, words spilling out rapid-fire. “You don’t know what it was like!”
I kept the phone out of her reach. At the same time, I lifted my free hand in a placating gesture. “Tell me what it was like, then,” I said in a low voice. “Tell me everything.”
Cherry shrank back, head slowly shaking. Tears had sprung to her eyes again. “Cal was supposed to be my best friend,” she said. “But it was so hard. She always took everything from me.Everything.”
“What do you mean?”
“She was just… she was ‘perfect Calista’. You know? Everyone else loved her so much, and they were just in awe of her all the time. She was smart, beautiful, athletic, ambitious, sweet.Perfect.” Cherry sniffed and scrubbed a shaky hand over her face. “I loved her too. But after a while, being her best friend started to wear thin, because I was always in her shadow. If I ever liked a guy and tried to talk to him, he’d instantly ask me forhernumber. When I introduced her to other friends of mine, they’d always end up getting closer withherthan me.She practically took over the theater, too.”
My brows furrowed. “How?”
“She was just a part-timer here, but everyone totally worshiped her anyway.” She paused, drawing a shaky breath. “Do you remember when I told you they wanted to make me share the senior production coordinator role with her? Eventhough I worked my ass off in this place foryears.I didso much morethan her, but they still wanted to hand half the role to her just because she was so damn popular!”
“So you killed her because of that?” I asked in a low voice. “Over a fucking theaterposition?”
“No! Of course not! I’m just saying… that was yet another point in a long list of things that added up over the years, and at some stage, I started to resent her for all of it. And then I started to hate her. But I loved her at the same time. It’s… it’s hard to explain.”
“Try,” I said stonily.
She swallowed audibly, head shaking. “You just don’t know what it’s like, always coming second to your own best friend. Always being the backup option for everyone, no matter how hard you try,” she said. Tears were spilling freely down her face now. “I had to work twice as hard just to get noticedhalfas much! And I could never complain to anyone about it, either, because everyone else was obsessed with her. So I knew they would probably just call me jealous. Or they’d tell me howluckyI was to have a friend like her.”
“So what happened?” I asked. “What finally pushed you over the edge?”
Cherry wiped her face and sucked in another deep breath. “She had no idea how I felt, obviously, and she still saw me as her best friend,” she said. “Then… one day she came to me. She was totally giddy. Told me she had a huge secret that she wasn’t supposed to share with anyone. But she felt like she was going to burst if she didn’t tellsomeone, so she wanted to tell me anyway. I just had to promise to keep it to myself.”
“Was it about Roman Valcourt?”
