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“Well, then, why aren’t they going down with everyone else?” I ask.
“They just wanted to pin everything on the rest of the Elites to get their hands on Jameson Automobiles!” he asserts. “They’ve always wanted control over the company. I wasn’t just jealous of Malcolm. I didn’t want you around him because he’s dangerous! I knew he was just trying to use you to get to me. I wanted to protect you from him.”
Now all of my comparisons between Vivian and Malcolm feel ridiculous. That’s why Emmett was so adamant about me staying away from Malcolm, while being unable to understand my jealousy of Vivian. He wasn’t being jealous and possessive. He was afraid for me.
“You know for certain they’re behind everything with the sex trafficking rings?” I ask, needing to know he’s positive.
“Yes!” he fires back without hesitation. “That’s part of why we stopped hanging out. He was already making plans for the whole thing! Vivian kept trying to tell me it was all just a plan to take the rest of our families down in the long run, but we couldn’t convince any of them. They all fell right into his trap. They’ve been setting things up to work out this way from the beginning.”
“So…does that mean…my father?” I try to connect the dots. “Was he involved, too?”
“Think about it. Why would your father send Malcolm and Liam to talk to you like that when I had already agreed to take you in?” he proposes. “I don’t think they ever had anything to do with your father at all. They were just trying to make you trusted them enough to get them the evidence. To help make sure nothing went wrong with their plan.”
“It doesn’t make sense.” I shake my head. “Sure, maybe Malcolm was just trying to use me to throw you off this whole time so he could find some way to get control of the company. But what about Coach Granger? Why did he drag Lily into that?”
“Without Coach Granger around to offer you other solutions, you’d feel like you had no other way out than to help them find evidence,” he concludes.
I nod in agreement. “But they didn’t know I had you.”
“And they didn’t know your father was working with me.”
“I’m so sorry, Emmett,” I cry, feeling stupid. “I’m sorry I never mentioned the meeting with them. So much happened so fast! I should have listened to you when you told me to stay away from Malcolm. I thought you were just jealous.”
“It’s okay,” he sighs, taking me into his arms. “I wish I had told you what kind of person he really was.”
My cheek drifts across the warmth of Emmett’s warm skin as he holds me, and the world feels right again. I’m so relieved he finally believes me and that I understand more about everything that has been happening. Emmett wasn’t giving into Vivian because he still had feelings for her. He knew there was a side to her that I couldn’t see—the side I saw under the stairs at school. And his rage towards Malcolm was all about keeping me safe.
Suddenly, he pulls back and whips out his cell phone.
“What are you doing?” I ask.
“I’m calling the police,” he states sternly.
“What?” I cry. “Why now? I thought we couldn’t trust them!”
“Don’t you see? The Hendersons are behind Bernadette’s disappearance. They have to be!” he explains assertively, but I’m not following him.
“How can you be so sure?”
“You don’t have to believe me, but I know Vivian doesn’t have anything to do with this,” he continues. “And her parents are too wrapped up in the investigation to pull something like this off.”
“No, I know that now.” I nod my head in earnest agreement. “I do believe you.”
“Trey and Vincent were sent off to stay with family on the other side of the country,” he expounds. “No one has heard from them. Their parents are in the same boat Vivian’s are. We know Lily was wrapped up in her own problems…nothing that had to do with coming after the company.”
“And if we’re certain my father didn’t do it…then that leaves the Hendersons.” I exhale sharply, wishing we could have seen it before.
“They must be trying to use Bernadette and my mom as some kind of leverage to get control over Jameson Automobiles,” he rants with a certain clarity. “That’s what they’ve wanted all along.”
“Why wait so long?” I question, still not feeling as convinced as he is. “Why not just come straight after you?”
“I don’t know.” He shakes his head, his eyes darting around the room in thought. “I don’t know what they’re up to, but I’m convinced they’ll know exactly where Bernadette and my mom are.”
The Hendersons could have taken Bernadette, hoping to arrange some sort of hostage deal to get what Emmett inherited from his father, but it still doesn’t make sense. Why would Malcolm spend so much time goading me? Why wait at all? Why not just let Emmett know right away to try and get what they were after?
Emmett seems convinced, and he knows more about the dynamics of this fucked up town than I do, so I don’t question him.
“But wait…how do you know the cops aren’t just as much in the Henderson’s pockets as they were your father’s?” I propose. “You said we shouldn’t trust them.”
