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“That’s what he was talking about, then,” she said, seeing it all come together. “Jack said he’d chosen Asher over you. Is that because he saved him from his crimes but couldn’t help you?”
Finn shook his head. “Yeah, I guess so.”
“But why would Asher want to date me? Marry me, even. Do you think he recognized me?”
“Honestly, Blythe, I have no idea. I don’t see the point in that, but I don’t know him anymore. He was a brother to me a long time ago, but he’s practically a stranger to me now. I have no idea what’s going on in his mind.”
“If I hadn’t seen this necklace, I’d be married right now. To someone who’d spent our entire relationship lying to me. I can’t…” She took a deep breath, clutching her chest. “I can’t believe how well he hid that part of himself from me. Am I just a complete idiot? Bianca knew. His father knew. You knew.” She shook her head, her eyes wild.
“You aren’t an idiot, Blythe. There are two very different sides to Asher, and he does well at keeping them separate. It’s just like any other addiction, and he hid it from you because he didn’t want you to see the bad parts of himself.”
“Is that why you hid going to jail from me? To keep the version I see of you clean?”
He twisted his mouth in thought, turning the car onto a new street and sighing. “Blythe, I don’t want to lie to you.”
“So, don’t.”
“It’s not that simple.”
“What do you mean?”
“I’m not innocent,” he said, placing his hand in the air. “I’m not. When Asher started stealing, I tried to get him to stop. But he was the rich kid and I was the one who grew up with nothing except what his parents could give me, so there were times when I joined in. He had all of this nice stuff to give to girls. I wanted that too. I never stole a car or anything that crazy, but I’m just saying…I’m not a white knight here.”
“I don’t expect you to—”
“Just…just listen, okay?” he said softly. “I need to get this out because what I’m about to tell you, I’ve never told another person. I’ve never spoken it out loud.”
“What is it?” she asked, sensing the seriousness of his tone.
“One night after school, we went to this bar using fake IDs that Asher had scored for us from some friend of his father’s. We thought we were hot shit, walking in there like we belonged.” He scoffed. “Later that night, he found me at the bar. He had two girls that he said we were going to party with. They were older. Twenties, I guess. He said we could go back to their apartment.” He rolled his eyes. “As we were leaving, Asher had the girls wait out front and told them we had to get something first. I thought he’d stolen from them and we were about to leave. He had been texting all night, but I didn’t think much of it until we got to the corner of the alley and his dealer was there.” He spoke slowly, contorting his mouth as she watched him attempt not to lose his composure. “He owed him some money, but he thought he could score something to hold him over. Asher wasn’t used to being told no.”
“But the Graces are rich. Why wouldn’t he just pay him?”
“Asher was too proud to ask his dad for money when things got tough. It’s why he doesn’t work for him. He benefited from their wealth, but he always wanted to do things his way. He didn’t work through most of college, so money was scarce. His parents paid his bills, but he blew through allowances as quickly as they came and wouldn’t ask for more.”
“So what happened?” she asked, her mouth open as she listened in disbelief to the nightmare Finn was laying out. “With the dealer?”
“I told Asher he was crazy. I told him we didn’t need anything and that we should call his dad and get it all paid off before anything had to happen. The dealer was furious. Asher had wasted his time coming there with no money and asking for more. I couldn’t let him do it.”
“That was the dealer that you killed? For Asher?”
He wouldn’t look at her as he went on. “I never killed him. I offered to pay him. I told him I’d borrow the money from Asher’s parents myself if I had to. I wanted to go warn the girls to leave, in case the guy got too mad. He wasn’t having it. Asher owed him a lot of money, and he said we weren’t leaving until we paid him what Asher owed. I knew Asher smoked weed and took a few pills now and again, but I had no idea what all he was into.”
“So, what happened?”
“He pulled a gun on me, told me to shut up or he’d kill me. Asher lunged at him—like an idiot—and the gun went off. His head hit the wall. Just like that and it was over.” He snapped his fingers. “I always thought death would be more dramatic but he was just…gone.”
“Asherkilled him?”
He nodded. “Protecting me.”
“From a situationhecaused. You shouldn’t have gone to jail for that.” She paused. “Wait a second,that’swhat Jacob meant, isn’t it? He chose Asher over you.”
Finn sighed. “We didn’t have a choice. The gun went off and people were coming, so we ran. We ran like hell, and we made it away that night. But the girls told police that we’d been down that alley. When they came looking for us, wanting to know what had happened…Jack made me a deal.”
“What kind of deal?” she asked.
“I took the blame for everything. Said Asher wasn’t involved.”
