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“Just James and a select few police who are working the case. And Sophie.”
“Jasmin and Logan?”
“No.” My chest sinks as I exhale. “I can’t tell them yet. I might never be able to unless it’s going to be shared in the trial. I’m not supposed to tell anyone.”
“But you’re telling me.”
“Because I had to. I hated you not knowing the whole truth. Jasmin, Logan… They don’t need to know if I was working alone, or for the police to get Julian. But you? I hated looking into your eyes and knowing there was something I hadn’t shared with you. Because you’re the only person in this world who’s seen all of me, Rose. All my parts. Including the dark, ugly ones.”
“Don’t talk about yourself like that,” she snaps.
The tiny glimmer of hope in the air lodges itself inside my chest at the fire in her voice.
She’s still fighting for us.
Somewhere deep down, it’s still there. An ember. But I’ll take it. She hasn’t let it burn out entirely.
There’s still a chance.
“So you waited until the last guy was found?”
“Yeah. I didn’t trust the police to do their job properly. My trial was fucked up, I was stabbed in jail. Julian had people working for him on the inside. As long as there was a chance Julian could wriggle his way out of it, then I couldn’t come for you. Even though I wanted to. I swear to you, Rose. I’ve never wanted something so badly in my life.”
I watch the window, hoping she might look out. Allow me a glimpse of her. Meet my eyes so I can look into hers as I speak.
So she can see that I mean it. Every. Single. Word.
But the space remains dark and empty.
“How do you know he won’t still find a way?”
“He won’t. Alistair found more evidence hidden at his house. And he got him on tape, admitting to things. Admitting to wanting me dead. Wanting the estate. Staging an ‘accident’ for me in jail.” The hairs on my arms prick up. He would never have stopped. I had to stop him first. “Julian won’t be getting out. He gave up his inside man when they told him he was looking at a conspiracy to commit murder charge. He begged like the coward he is. And he’s not going to have many friends in jail. No big henchmen protecting him. He’ll be a sitting duck for all the people he’s crossed over the years to get ahead.”
The thought spreads sourness over my tongue. If Julian makes it through his sentence alive, then he’s a lucky man. And if he doesn’t? Then I’ve already been to my father’s funeral. I won’t be shedding any tears, shared blood or not.
It’s something I’m working on, but I’m getting there. I am not him. I never will be him. And I believe that. And knowing Rose believes that too, and that she told me over and over again before she left, it’s enough.
Blood means nothing.
“What’s he like? Alistair, I mean.”
“A total sucker for Jasmin.”
“Of course he is.” There’s amusement tinting Rose’s voice that has my lips pulling into the beginnings of a smile as my heart swells.
“He’s a good guy. He loves her. He worked hard to help her when I wasn’t there. He helped her take on the business, gave her the strength and confidence to make difficult decisions. I owe him a lot.”
“He looked a bit like you when I saw him on Jasmin’s phone.”
“Yeah, poor fucker.”
When I first met Alistair, it was like looking into a mirror but knowing it wasn’t me reflected back. We have the same face shape… but different eyes. We both have eyes like our mothers’. A fact I’m grateful for.
I don’t have his. Rose doesn’t have to look into Julian’s eyes and see him when she looks at me.
“Don’t you mean lucky? Hot like his big brother? But not as hot, obviously,” Rose muses, making a chuckle rumble inside my chest for the first time in over ninety days.
“You still think I’m hot?” I’m met with silence, and my chuckle dies. “I’m sorry, I didn’t mean—”
