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“And maybe …” Leo looked at me with glassy eyes, as if he could feel every inch of my raging conscience. “Maybe part of the reason Elliot’s dad went broke was because Sylvia was doing Felix’s dad a favor. And Felix didn’t say a word, even though he knew everything. I mean, why would he? If he said something, he’d be on the streets. His dad’s restaurant empire would’ve collapsed. They needed the money, and Sylvia could get it for them.”
I nodded, pretending to have accepted it all before the words set in my brain. It was too much, and yet, it made sense. Felix being whisked away to England must have had more to do with Elliot’s wrath than roping him in to the family business.
“Okay,” I said, still nodding. “What about … the killing thing, though?”
“He—” Leo cut himself off with a hand on his mouth. “I shouldn’t have said that.”
My hands were back on his shoulders in a second, just holding him there, as if I could squeeze the truth out of him.
“Leo,” I enunciated, my eyes drilling his. “Tell me.”
He placed his hands on mine, as if to reassure himself more than me. It was evident that he had been holding these secrets in place for Elliot’s sake, and Elliot’s sake only. It wasn’t doing Leo any good other than put the burden on him.
“You ever wonder why your friend chose England?” he said, his voice making it sound like he was falling into a deep, dark hole. “And why Elliot went to school at Powell?”
“Because his family’s broke,” I said. “I know that. And because Pierre wanted—”
I didn’t know.
“You’re wrong.” Leo’s voice cracked, and he rolled his eyes. “Fuck, that sounded dark. Yes, they don’t have a ton of money, but he’s here because he wanted to frame you. To protect himself.”
“And why would he do that?” I pressed.
“In case,” he continued, “Pierre succeeded.”
A memory flashed through me.
Felix wouldn’t have given me the gift card to C’est Bien if he knew what Elliot was planning to do. He wouldn’t even let me go near Elliot if he knew.
“Elliot commissioned Pierre to kill Felix’s father,” Leo said in one breath. “Seems crazy, but you remember what happened back in high school, don’t you? One night, you came to the park to meet Elliot, and I was there in his place. Pierre showed up with a knife.”
I couldn’t breathe.
“Your friend has a propensity for violence,” Leo whispered. “And Ell has a propensity for revenge.”
“But why would P do that?” I almost screamed at him. “That’s not in him. He wouldn’t do something like that.”
“Anyone can do anything with the right compensation,” he replied. “The money Sylvia didn’t take from the Lancasters? Elliot gave to your friend. You wonder how he’s able to live on his own? That’s how.”
“But P said he’s doing homework and shit for a price,” I tried. “For Vivian’s cousin. I mean, how much did Ell give him?”
Leo snorted. “You think that forging someone else’s homework is enough to cover rent in London? Plus, tuition for four years?” He shook his head, but reached out to me to hold my shoulder once he saw the look on my face morph from stunned disbelief to teary anger. “Face it, Kat. Your friend’s a liar, and a good one. He told you the truth, but only half of it, and you believed it.”
“I don’t want to believe it,” I muttered, pulling away from him. But his hand held an iron grip, and he pulled me closer to him just so he could whisper in my ear.
“Think about it,” he murmured. “You and Pierre both have something against Felix. He bullied you. If the cops found out that it was Pierre who did it, they’d think one of you might come for Elliot’s father next. Maybe mine, who knows? Cut off our source of money. Look—”
He was speaking so quickly that his words began to blend together into a dark, sinister drone.
“If it came to that, that’s where you’d come in. You’d take the blame, wouldn’t you? He’d make you take the blame. That’s why he stayed, and Pierre went.”
My head was spinning. It was fracturing. I wanted to do one thing, and one thing only—the one thing I should’ve done months ago, when Pierre had reached out to me, and I didn’t respond.
“I just don’t understand,” I forced out. “Why would Pierre do something like that?”
“For the money,” Leo said. “For the thing he always wanted, but never had.”
He didn’t try to kill himself because he saw that I was with Elliot. He tried to kill himself out of stress, out of pressure—to escape this twisted plot that Elliot had drawn him into.
