Page 23 of He Had It Coming

“Dad sat me down and told me you killed Ruby. He wept as he said the words. Drank his bourbon and talked about consequences.” Maeve leaned in and her voice grew more intense. As if she thought by staring Jerek down, no longer sugarcoating the reality, she could reach him. “Dad said he fought with you, pushed until you admitted losing control that night simply because Ruby laughed at you while she told you no.”

“That’s not true.” Jerek’s voice stayed flat, sounding almost unaffected by the implosion firing off around him.

“Ruby did flirt with you. Found you attractive.” Maeve looked at me. “I know you hate hearing that part, but it’s true.”

Excitement moved into Jerek’s voice. “Yes, exactly. Which proves what I’ve always said.”

Maeve got up and walked around to stand on the side of the chair farthest away from Jerek. She glanced out the window, toward the open water, before continuing. “Ruby was also wary, which you thought was sexy and a bit of an act, and a game you thought you could win.”

“Who’s the nutcase now?” I asked but neither of them reacted.

“You were determined to wear Ruby down.” Maeve rested her hands on the back of the chair and pushed forward. “She didn’t want you to follow her that night. She joked and you took that as a green light until she struggled to get away from you. She fought back. Called you names and threatened to ruin you.”

I knew all of this directly from Maeve. She’d admitted the horror of what her father had disclosed before we hatched this plan. Hearing the words now, no longer hidden by layers of legal posturing, still pummeled me, stealing my strength.

Ruby didn’t invite Jerek into her life as he’d claimed. The police, the prosecutors, that one annoying friend of Ruby’s, all got the facts wrong.

Ruby and I kept in touch while she was in college. She filled me in on boys and crushes. Told me the things she couldn’t tell our parents. Depended on me to help her get birth control, which I did because it was healthy for her to experiment. But she had more sense than to let Jerek touch her.

“Bullshit.” His words slurred a bit. He seemed to be losing whatever battle waged inside him. Concussion. Blood loss. Anxiety. One of them, or all of them, threatened to take him out. “This is the type of garbage Sabrina has been trying to sell for years and no one believes her.”

I shrugged. “Maeve did.”

“Do you see what’s happening here?” He nodded in my direction. “Sabrina did this. She convinced you because you wanted to be convinced, Maeve. You need to believe the worst about me so you can pretend to be the better Hayes child.”

Maeve rolled her eyes. “You make it easy to beat you.”

“God, Maeve. I get it. My mommy spoiled your mommy’s fun. The affair happened almost thirty years ago. Get over it.”

“You being spoiled and coddled, forgiven for everything, and incapable of finishing a thing. You’ve gotten the benefit of the doubt and most of Dad’s attention.” Maeve raged now. Whatever tiny thread held her together seemed to be ripping apart. “Fighting for you, lying for you, sucked the life out of Dad and now he’s not even Dad anymore.”

“You’re blaming me for Alzheimer’s? Wow, I really am powerful. You both should fear me.” He made a noise that sounded almost like a growl of frustration. “Sabrina here brainwashed you. She’s played into every trigger you have and all your over-the-top anxieties and insecurities. Her and that damn Anonymous site influenced you against me. Your own brother.”

“I’m not Anonymous.” I’d danced around it before but hit the denial head-on this time.

A fraught silence filled the cabin.

Finally, Maeve’s voice, softer now, broke through the quiet. “She’s telling the truth about that. Sabrina is not Anonymous.”

“How can you possibly believe that?” he asked.

Maeve shrugged. “Because I am.”

Chapter Twenty-Three

“Well.” I clapped my hands and stood up. Ignored the slight stiffness in my lower back from being doubled over and waiting. “I feel like this is a big moment for the two of you. A giant step forward in understanding your respective positions.”

“You don’t know when to shut up.” Jerek almost roared as he said the words.

“You’re upset. Understandable. I’ll give you a few more minutes, but then I really have to move us forward.” But I didn’t go far because I wasn’t a dumbass or even a little trusting. I needed these two in my line of sight at all times.

The knife being right there for the picking also held me in place. Jerek might be lost enough to slip it out and wave it around, unclear the resulting blood loss would kill him. He was just self-involved enough to think he could beat an untreated stab wound.

“You’ve been posting the lies about me?” Jerek asked.

“Every word is true. I was careful,” Maeve said. “I needed people to be curious and go looking and see that the posts weren’t embellished. I needed them to dredge the incident back up again.”

“Careful?” Jerek sounded stunned.