Where the Darkness Goes

Chapter 33

CHAPTER THIRTY-THREE

TESSA — PRESENT DAY

We’re lying in bed later as the sun begins to peek through the blinds, when the worry sets in. I don’t know what any of this means or what I even want it to mean.

Garrett and I have always had this weird push-and-pull relationship, but when tested, we weren’t able to make it work. What if that hasn’t changed? What if I’m reading too much into this, and he doesn’t want it to change?

Putting all that aside, I’m supposed to be going back home soon—a home that is nearly four hours away. The fear of long distance was such a problem for us once, it caused the end of our relationship before it ever really began. So will that mean I’ll have to come back here after I worked so hard to build a life alone away from this place? It’s not like I have anything special in the city. I do freelance web design, so I can do that from anywhere, but it was scary going out into the world when all I’ve ever known is this place and these people. To return to it—to my friends and Will and Mom—feels like giving a piece of that up. As much as it might seem like a soft place to land, it’s also saying goodbye to the work and bravery that went into starting over in a place where I can’t ask my neighbor to borrow their car when mine’s in the shop or where the police officer who pulled me over hasn’t known me since I was in the womb.

The people here don’t understand that part of me, but Garrett and Will do. They left, too. I wonder if they had the same reservations about coming home.

All of these thoughts are swirling in my head, making me dizzy with worry, when his voice cuts through it all.

I hadn’t even realized he was awake.

“I need to tell you something.”

My muscles tense. Those words feel worse somehow than ‘we need to talk,’ which shattered me the first time, and I’m not sure I’d survive a second.

Slowly, I turn my head to look at him. His dark hair framed by the white pillow looks ethereal and innocent, so peaceful it hurts. “Okay.”

He rolls onto his side, squeezing his eyes shut. “I wanted to tell you before any of this happened, and I’m so sorry I didn’t. I was going to tell you last night at dinner, and then everything happened, and I was so swept up in it?—”

“Are you married?” I squeak out the only possible thought I can imagine would make him look this worried.

He balks. “What? No.”

“Then what? A child? Do you have a kid?”

His brows draw together. “Woman, you bungee jump to conclusions. Don’t you think Will would’ve mentioned that?”

“He didn’t tell me you lived here.”

He opens his mouth, pauses, then says, “Fair point.”

“Are you engaged? Or…moving? Are you leaving?”

He puts a hand on my arm. “Take a breath, and I’ll tell you.”

I release a slow breath on command.

His eyes search mine, looking for answers I surely don’t have. Finally, he speaks, and what he says sends spirals of shock through my body.

“Britney didn’t steal Cassidy’s jewelry back then. And neither did Cory.”

“What are you talking about?”

He braces himself, not meeting my eyes for a long pause. When he finally does, there’s a pain on his face I don’t understand. “Will is the one who stole it. And…and I helped him.”

I can’t fathom a world where this is anything other than a cruel joke, but as I study his face, trying desperately to find a hint of the laughter I know must be there, I come up empty. “What are you talking about?”

“When Will was dating her, he came up with this…plan. It was just about the Hollywood stuff. The necklace and bracelet from whoever. He thought it was harmless, I guess. I mean, we didn’t hurt her. We wouldn’t have. But then…she was hurt. And we got scared. The missing jewelry…it never had anything to do with her murder. But then we couldn’t tell anyone that, or we knew we’d be implicated in everything. It all just happened so close together and…” As he trails off, he’s staring hard at nothing at all. Lost in this impossible memory. “But now that they’re trying to blame Britney, I just…I can’t look you in the eye without telling you the truth.”

Fog fills my brain over his confession, muffling and blurring everything he just told me, trying to unscramble it, force it to somehow make sense. But the truth is, it can’t. What he has just told me is impossible. “I…I don’t understand. How… how ?”

“I don’t know all the details. Honestly, I don’t. There was a day when Will knew they wouldn’t be home, so we told your mom he was staying over at my house. Then we drove over to Cassidy’s in the middle of the night. I stayed in the car to keep watch while he broke in. He knew where her mom kept the jewelry, and he used your mom’s key to their house to get in. And we just, I don’t know, we just took it, and that was it.”

“That was it?” I cry. “You stole two priceless pieces of jewelry, not to mention implicated my mom in the crime and cost her so much—her dignity, her clients, her livelihood, her reputation—and that was it ? But why ? Why would he even do that? What did he do with it? Was he planning to use the money for college or something? He had grant money and scholarships.” I should stand up and change, but I’m frozen in place.

“I don’t know,” he admits. “I don’t know why he wanted it. I thought maybe you guys were having financial issues, and neither of you wanted to talk to me about it. I know how hard it was with just your mom, and this was right after everyone had started firing her. At the time, I didn’t understand what was going on with that, but Will said people were just nervous. Battening down the hatches or whatever. Still, I knew it was hard and he wouldn’t take or borrow any money from me, even when I tried. Cassidy’s family was rich, you know? They didn’t need the money. I guess I framed it as some sort of Robin Hood scenario in my head to ease my guilty conscience. I thought I was helping him help himself in the way he felt like he needed to. I thought it was a stupid ego thing, but I didn’t ask questions. I didn’t need to know. Will has never asked me for anything that wasn’t important, and so I helped him. We didn’t speak about it afterward. I couldn’t. I know it’s wrong and unforgivable. I’m just so sorry.”

I sit up in bed, massaging my temples as if I’m trying to make space for this new reality in my head. “You and Will stole Cassidy’s necklace and bracelet?”

“Yes.”

“On the day she died?”

“No. A few days before. It was bad timing, but that’s all it was, I swear.”

I close my eyes. Things were hard then, probably even harder than Mom allowed us to see. But why was Will shouldering that alone? It wasn’t his place. And why would he ever think something like this would make it okay? Stealing? Mom would never have allowed it. “He must’ve pawned them. That’s why they found the bracelet earlier and then the necklace now.” I chew my lip in thought. “Britney must’ve gotten the necklace recently, but she would’ve recognized it, right? Unless Justin bought it for her as a gift, but again that doesn’t make any sense. If they found it at a pawn shop, there would be records, right? The police will be able to track it down.” Which might mean they’ll trace it back to Will. I don’t say that part out loud, but we seem to realize it at the same time.

Garrett swallows. “If he pawned it, it would’ve had to be far away from here. Everyone in town was on the lookout for that jewelry. No one would’ve bought it from him.”

“Maybe he waited until you were away in college, but that still doesn’t explain how Britney got it.” I pull my legs up to my chest, bouncing my chin on my knees as I try to piece it all together. “It also doesn’t explain the other robberies. There was the coin collection from Amber’s and the china from Emily’s. Was that Will, too?”

“If it was, he never told me about it.”

I rest my forehead on my knees, clicking my tongue as my mind struggles to make sense of this mess. “There has to be something else. It’s too much of a coincidence.”

“I don’t know. Maybe someone saw us steal the jewelry and wanted to frame us.”

“But then why didn’t they? Nothing ever came out to connect you two to Cassidy. It was always Cory.” Anger flashes in me. “And my mom.” Without warning, the memory of the photos in Will’s nightstand come racing back.

“What is it?” Garrett reads my expression.

“Right after Cassidy was killed, I found these pictures in Will’s nightstand of the girls who had died, including Cassidy. When I asked him about them, he got really mad, and that was when we went through that whole period where we weren’t speaking. When you…”

He gives the world’s smallest nod. “Broke up with you, yeah.”

“Was it because of the pictures? Did you know about them?”

“I told you. It was because I was going away, and Will was dealing with some stuff, and it was all too much?—”

“You keep saying that, but you’re really saying nothing.”

“I’m not. It’s the truth.”

“How would I even know what the truth is? After all, you’ve clearly gotten good at lying to me over the years.” Anger swells in me suddenly. How could they do this? How could they lie? What else have they done?

“That’s not fair. It wasn’t really my secret, and it killed me to keep it from you. I was the one who decided to tell you now because of Britney.”

“Well, how noble of you.” I charge out of bed, whipping the covers off and wrapping them around myself as I stalk across the room.

“Tessa, wait?—”

“No, you wait!” I shout back, stopping in my tracks. I whip around and point a trembling finger at him. “You lied to me for years. My brother lied to me for years. And my mom went through hell for it. And for all I know, you’re still lying.”

“I’m sorry,” he says softly. “I’m sorry I lied. I’m sorry we hurt you. I’m sorry Frannie was ever in the middle of it.”

I turn to face the door, catching his eye in the mirror on the wall. “You should’ve told me last night. Before we…”

“I know. I’m sorry I didn’t.”

“There’s nothing else to say right now.” I pull open the bedroom door and shut myself in my room, dropping down on the bed. My entire reality has shifted, and I don’t know how to right it.

Why would they lie to me? How can I ever trust either of them again? What other lies might there be? More than that, more than anything else, there’s a single question pulsing in my mind: Why did Will steal the jewelry in the first place?