This was it, the moment she couldn’t wait longer for. But still, Nadine felt herself out on a precipice, a certain fall in every direction. Guilt that gnawed, that ate right through her.
“When I told you that story, the other day,” she began. She could hardly face Harper’s expectant expression. “There’s something I left out. I should have told you, I’m sorry but—”
“Nadine,” Harper interrupted sternly. Her voice was ice, and Nadine winced against it. “Do you know what has, unexpectedly, hurt me the most recently? Joel was going to leave me. He took out all that money and he ran. And he couldn’t even just do that, no. My lucky necklace, the one my mother gave me, he had to take that too. He tried to take my luck from me. All this time I’ve been mourning him, even knowing he cheated on me, even knowing he was going to leave me—and then I find out he stopped for one last moment of cruelty.”
Yes. Good. It was a good cover.
Nadine was not surprised. Harper had expensive lawyers and a case made of circumstantial evidence, speculation, and paper-thin witness statements.
If the media hadn’t fanned these flames, Nadine was unconvinced it would have even reached a trial.
“I know, I know Harper,” she said quickly. “And I can only imagine how hard that is. But …”
Harper’s gaze was cutting, and she watched Nadine squirm. “The worst thing? That’s the only thing my mother’s ever given me that meant anything to me. And now through all of this I find out it’s fake? A hunk of plastic I’ve been wearing for years?”
Oh god, she knew. Nadine was simultaneously relieved and terrified. She had, for over a month now, agonized over her responsibility in this arrest, and in not being able to talk to Harper about it.
She wanted to sit at her feet, rest her head on her lap, and tell her exactly what had happened. To beg for her forgiveness.
To know that everything was okay between them.
Rather than this—risking losing not only Harper’s freedom but Harper herself.
“I just want to know,” Harper snapped. “Was it intentional?”
“No, god no.”
Is that what she’d thought? That night, when Harper came to her door and Nadine led her to the shower. When, later, they left and she stuck her necklace in her pocket—the one Harper had given her years ago. The one she had still brought everywhere, to every award and every festival, because Harper was the luckiest thing that ever happened to her. Because on that night of all nights, didn’t she need fortune on her side?
And when she got home and discovered it missing, only to find Harper’s necklace curled in a heap on her bathroom counter?
She’d nearly convinced herself it really was her cheap imitation, because if it wasn’t … then hers was somewhere incriminating. Harper must have felt the same, must have realized she’d lost her necklace and never said a thing in the hope it wouldn’t matter.
Neither of them had said anything—and wasn’t that them? Just as bad as each other?
But Nadine had, like she had so many years ago, taken the necklace.
Nadine swallowed and looked at the officer. “I’m sure your mother didn’t realize she’d given you a fake until afterward, when it was too late to do anything about it.”
She understood, she supposed. If the roles were reversed, she might wonder if Harper had tried to set her up too.
Harper nodded. “Alright.”
“Is it?”
“Yes.” Harper smiled then, small and slight but a promise of something bigger to come. “I remember how that story ended. If you say it wasn’t intentional, I believe you.”
“I’m going to fix this,” Nadine said.
Harper cocked her head to the side. “I’m going to be free. The trial is ludicrous. I don’t think they even believe it themselves. There’s DNA they can’t explain. There’s damage to his teeth consistent with gang violence. There are threadsthe police themselves have admitted they can’t follow. They’ve managed to string something of a narrative together with me, but it doesn’t fit right. The truth is still out there making a lot more sense.”
Hope flared—and unlike when Harper wasn’t in front of her, it didn’t immediately sputter out.
Maybe they really had done it—thrown enough chaos and misdirection into the mix to put on a better show. “You’re right,” Nadine agreed. “You’ll be acquitted, and then you’ll be back in LA, and I doubt I’ll be cast in anything ever again because all of Hollywood will be knocking at your door.”
“Well, I don’t know about that. Proving myself innocent in a court of law is one thing. In the court of public opinion? Well, that’s quite another.”
Nadine reached her hands a little closer, though still not touching. Not with the watchful gaze upon them. But she wanted to, and Harper must have looked down and realized the same.
