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My coat is draped over my shoulders, and out of the corner of my eye, I see Lake drop to his knees and put my feet into my boots. When he stands, he steps beside me but doesn’t say anything. His silent support gets me through the next few minutes of looking back at everything.
I think about all the times my parents were around Tripp and how he always charmed them. He charms everyone. The way he and my dad would spend hours every visit golfing. The ski vacation every Christmas. Was he planning this all along? How can you be so warm and open if you know your end game is destruction and chaos? I can’t wrap my mind around it.
It can’t be financially motivated either. My parents were wealthy, obviously but nothing like Tripp’s family. My couple million should have been peanuts to Tripp, literally about as important as couch change.
I don’t know how much time has passed, but Lake finally speaks as he takes my hand. “I don’t know what you’re feeling right now, but it is valid. I’m here. Nolan is here. Sawyer is here. Grant is—”
He stops when I cover his mouth with my hand. “Not him right now.” I haven’t even let myself start to process the hurt of walking in the room to hear him saying ‘pussy is pussy’ about me. To be honest, it’s the last thing on my mind at this present moment.
Another wave of anguish crashes over me as I double over. It feels like someone has reached into my chest and ripped my heart out. I think about the last time I saw Mom and Dad and how tight they held me. I can still feel their arms around me. A keening sob rips through me.
I look up at Lake, his face blurry from the tears I can’t stop. “Why are you guys even bothering with me? I'm just a beaten and broken mess. Any good part of me that was left, Tripp poisoned. You should just let me go.”
I don’t wait for a response before I start walking down to the pond. I take a few shuddering breaths as I try to get a handle on my tears. Crying about it now isn’t going to do anything anyway. The cards have been dealt, and I got a shitty fucking hand.
“You’re wrong. You’re so wrong.” I didn’t even hear Lake approach. “You aren’t broken. You’re so incredibly strong. You were given the chance to run, with nothing, and you took it. You survived years of torture.” He holds a hand up to silence me when I try to deny that. “Locking you in a metal box with nothing was fucking torture.”
My nostrils flare as I fight back more tears.
“I’m in complete awe of you. You are fighting every day. I see it, we all see it. You sought us out after thinking we’d abandoned you for years. You are so fucking brave.”
“What you call bravery, I call desperation.” I swipe tears from my cheeks.
“If we would have turned you away, you would have kept going. You would have found a way to get yourself safe and figure out your next move.”
I would have, but that’s not bravery. It’s just having no other option.
I turn when I hear footsteps crunching through the snow toward us. Sawyer emerges from the trees with his face contorted with concern for me. He takes long strides, eating the distance between us quickly. When he opens his arms, I don’t hesitate before stepping into them. He kisses the top of my head and whispers apologies for things he had no hand in.
“I hate to even say this, but what Nolan told you isn’t the extent of what we know about Tripp.” Sawyer drops his arms and lets me take a step back.
“There’s more?” I ask dumbly.
“There’s more,” he answers solemnly. “You ready to go back inside?”
No. I’m not, but I follow him back up to the house anyway. Lake puts his hand on my lower back as he walks behind me, lending me silent strength.
A blast of warmth hits me when I walk into the living room of the cabin. Grant is adding some logs to the fire and the snapping of the flames setting them alight is the only sound in the massive room. I look over at Nolan and see him sitting with his elbows on his knees and his face covered by his large hands. I can tell how awful he feels by the sadness radiating off him.
Part of me wants to go to him and offer comfort while I simultaneously seek it, but something holds me back. I just don’t have the energy to figure out what it is yet. I sit back down in the chair I had previously been using and wait for Nolan to continue.
He looks up when we’re all back sitting in the room. He looks to me for permission to continue, and I give a slight incline of my head. I don't know what else there could possibly be, but the atmosphere of the room is so heavy I know it must be bad.
“So aside from the information about your parents, I also started digging into his finances. What I found was concerning.” He hands us all bank statements from accounts I recognize and some that I don’t.
“How did you get these, Nolan?” I look up at him in confusion.
“I hacked all his accounts. At least the ones I could find, I’m sure he has some hidden offshore accounts. In fact, if you know of any, it’d be great for you to share that. They’re harder to find but just as easy to crack.”
“What am I looking at?” I murmur as I scan through all the pages. There are accounts I don’t recognize and some with my name on them that I do. And almost all of them are much lower in cash than I would have thought was right. We never had money issues from my perspective. All the money from my parents’ estate is gone. I don’t see it in any of the statements.
“From what I have found, Tripp is using the charity as a front, embezzling money from there, and putting it into a hidden account.”
“Why?” Grant asks.
“Your guess is as good as mine at this point,” Nolan says. “Although, I do have a working theory. I don’t have the facts to back it up at this point though.”
“Tell us,” Sawyer says.
