All eyes turned to her as she stood there in that ugly Christmas sweater dress.
Our eyes met.
“Who helped my mom when she needed her most. In good times and in really dark ones. We love you.”
Amanda wiped away a tear, careful not to smudge her mascara.
I drank the apple cider, then set the glass on the table. “Well, I gotta go.”
We all hugged. Kissed cheeks. I promised I’d be back right after the shift. Markus clung to my leg all the way to the door.
I stepped outside.
The cold winter night wrapped around me. It smelled faintly of wood smoke from the fireplace. Snow crunched under my shoes as I walked down the path to my car.
The moon stood silver and high in a cloudless sky.
I unlocked my car and was about to get in, when the front door opened and Amanda came after me.
“Dylan, wait!”
She stopped a few feet away from me, as if to give me space to process what I had just learned. Her arms were wrapped tight around her body as she shivered in the cold without a jacket. At first, she looked like she would try to pretend, make up some story that would cut her loose from this web of lies and murder. But then she nodded, and her blue eyes found mine.
“Your mom and I begged Zach to agree to stay for a few years after she died. So I could be with you until you all were older. And make sure your dad would be all right.” She looked over her shoulder to make sure nobody had followed her.
“But Zach didn’t even consider it. He always hated your dad, and it brought him joy to think about your dad’s struggles and what would become of you kids after Lacey was gone.”
She paused, weighing her words carefully.
“That confrontation between your mom and Zach in the parking lot happened after he'd threatened me. I told him I would leave him. Which, to a man like Zach who had everything handed to him in life, was unthinkable. You don’t leave Zach. Not without his permission. He had a prenup and would’ve left me penniless. And he swore he would destroy me and your family in court if I ever left him. Make me look mentally unfit to be around you kids. He would get the best lawyers in the nation who could keep us in court until we lost everything.”
Her blond hair shimmered silver in the moonlight as she paused.
“One day,” she said, “when I was throwing away some old clothes of mine, I found an AA meeting sign-in sheet from one of your dad’s sessions. It was in an old coat.” She shook her head. “I mean, what are the odds of that?”
She looked down at the snow. “I remembered your dad telling me at one of the meetings to stay away from this Dustin guy. That he was dangerous and had a record.”
She didn’t have to elaborate more on that point. After she and my mom had come up with the plan to get rid of Zach, Amanda had contacted Billy Dustin to ask if he knew someone who could get the job done. And Billy connected her to Myers. He probably made money off the whole thing too.
“So it was all planned?”
“Yes and no. Not like it happened, I mean. Your mom isn’t some calculating monster. This guy, Myers, lied to us and completely changed the plan. Your mom was supposed to get out of the car at the side of the road. Myers was supposed to take only Zach into the woods. But he took her too and tried to blackmail her for more money. Said he would back out. Right in front of Zach. He overheard the whole thing and attacked your mom.”
I nodded. Of course Myers had left all of this out. Lying scum.
“Things happened so fast from there. She only brought the knife in case she had to defend herself.”
“Why did you stop talking to us and not help my mom sooner?” I asked.
Amanda looked up at me, then her gaze dropped again in shame.
“It was a lot, you know. The pictures of him. The way Zach died and your mom at the center of it all …”
“Did Dad know?”
She shook her head hard. “No. I swear. He doesn’t even remember Dustin from his AA meetings back then.”
I watched her as she stood shaking in the cold. She was shivering dramatically, her teeth chattering.
