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Tears blurred her vision, and she stood there for a few more moments, paying her respects. She didn't know why she wanted to be here. Maybe this was what she needed to see to confirm that everything Xavier had said wasn't lies, and she wasn't stupid to trust her instincts and believe him.
Taking a deep breath, she walked away, discarding the idea of looking for his parents' graves. Standing beside Chris who stared at the multiple headstones in front of him, she wondered how he knew anyone in Aquaville at all.
Giselle snaked her arms around his bicep and looked at what he saw. He didn't move.
"Who are they?" she asked.
Chris sighed. "Just some people I knew back in college."
"They're your friends?"
"They were in my classes."
She noticed how unusually still he was as he stared at them. How did she not know about this when she knew every minute detail of his life?
"What happened to them?"
He let out a shuddering, defeated breath as if the weight of the world was upon his shoulders. "Someone killed them for what they did."
"Were they innocent?"
He shook his head.
"How did you know they were here?" she asked.
He licked his lips and shrugged his shoulders, letting out another sigh. "They never made it back. I was at their burial."
Multiple questions crowded her mind. "Why were they here?"
He stared at the graves still, his jaw tight. "It was an all-boys trip. We were here for summer vacation."
We. "What did they do?"
He shook his head.
She gulped. "Were you with them?"
He looked at her and smiled a fraction. "Let's go home."
She pursed her lips, swallowing down all the questions that threatened to spill. Chris had never hidden anything from her, so it felt natural to be intrigued by the part of his life she wasn't aware of. But if he wasn't ready to talk about it, she wasn't going to impose. She could respect his privacy.
She raised herself on tiptoes and kissed his cheek. "Of course."
Chris looked at the tombstones long and hard one last time, and so did she. Her eyes scanned over the dates. All of them had died on...
Her heart sank.
'11th July 2014'
Every single one of them had died the day after Amara's death. Her heartbeat drummed in her ears, and she took a deep breath to calm herself.
Had Xavier killed these men?
Were these the men who'd assaulted his sister?
She didn't want to ask the next question screaming inside her head. Her vision blurred, but she kept herself steady.
Had Chris been with these men?
