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Lifting it from my pocket, I smoothed it out and then opened it. Had it really only been this morning that I’d taken this from her room?
I began idly flipping through the book again, taking comfort from the sight of her words written there on the pages. Fucking hell, I was turning into such a sap. That was what this girl did to me.
My gaze caught on a familiar word, and I quickly turned back to the previous page. Lines of text filled the space from top to bottom, continuing onto the next page and the next. The very first line said:
My confession and heartfelt apology to the Ashcroft family.
Sitting back, I began to read.
* * *
“How are you feeling?” I took a seat at the side of my dad’s bed.
He smiled tiredly. “I’ve been better. But it’s nothing that a few nights’ rest won’t fix.”
“Except for your ankle.”
“Except that.” Shifting into a more upright position, he reached for the cup of water that stood on the table next to him. When he’d finished drinking from it, he turned back to me. “I hear that I have your girl to thank for saving my life.”
To my complete fucking shock and horror, I could feel tears welling up in my eyes. How could I love and hate someone so much at the same time? How could I feel so fucking grateful but so fucking betrayed?
“Dad.” My voice cracked.
His eyes widened. “Knox, what’s the matter?”
I shook my head.
“Knox. I’m in a hospital bed, but I’m fine. Don’t hold yourself back from what you need to say out of some misguided notion that you need to protect me while I’m in a fragile state.” Despite myself, I snorted, and he cracked a proper smile. “That’s better. Now, tell me what’s going on.”
I told him everything. Everything that Elena had written in her notebook, matching it up with what I already knew about Jason Myers’ case, everything I’d discovered through my own investigations, and what had happened today. By the time I’d finished, my voice was so fucking hoarse that I didn’t even sound like myself anymore.
My dad was silent for a long, long time, but eventually, he spoke. “You’ve given me a lot to think about. The first and most important thing is that we need to make sure that Letitia doesn’t come anywhere near JoJo again.”
I nodded. “I have Tristan watching her. In fact, I’d better text him.”
“Good.” He pursed his lips. “I don’t think it’s too much of a stretch to say that Letitia was involved in the accident today, going by the way she reacted to the news that Elena was in the car with me. I’ll make a call to Detective Johnson—I’m sure we can gather enough evidence to charge her with fraud at the very—”
“Fuck! She gave Tristan the slip.” I stared down at my phone, where a text had come through just thirty minutes earlier. My phone had been on silent since we were in the hospital, and I was fucking kicking myself.
“What?” My dad sat up straighter. “How long ago was this?”
“Uh, half an hour ago?”
“Hand me your phone. I guarantee that she’ll head straight here—she’ll want to see Elena. If we’re lucky, we can kill two birds with one stone.”
He made a call, telling me to keep the nurse out of his room in case he wasn’t allowed to use it while he was on his “sick bed.” In the meantime, my mum had woken up, and I quickly and quietly gave her a rundown of the situation.
“That poor, poor girl.” She dabbed tears away from the corners of her eyes as I stared at her, open-mouthed. “She never stood a chance, did she? I can’t imagine what her life must have been like for her own mother to be able to talk her into such an evil plan. But she did the right thing in the end, didn’t she?”
“But…but…aren’t you angry? Don’t you feel, I dunno, betrayed?”
She shook her head slowly. “It’s… Maybe my perspective is different, but during my modelling career and even beyond that, with the charities I’ve worked with, I’ve come across far too many girls with similar stories. Or…not similar in that way, but girls who have been taken advantage of, girls who have lost so much and cling to what they have left with all their might, even if it’s wrong. Girls who have had their judgement skewed by those that are supposed to protect and love them unconditionally, girls who have lost everything and are incapable of coherent decisions because their trauma is too great. It takes time to work through everything, Knox. The fact that Elena has done it alone, without anyone to guide her…”
“I don’t understand.”
“I know you don’t. Listen to me, Knox. I do feel angry and betrayed—the same things you’re feeling—but do you know what? Those emotions I feel are mostly directed at Letitia. Yes, Elena has done things wrong. She’s lied to us all. She’s been complicit in her mother’s plan, yet I think we can all see how much she’s changed in the weeks she’s been here, and the fact that she was ready and willing to share everything with us counts for something. I’m not saying you should forgive her—far from it—but what I am saying is that maybe it’s worth considering another point of view.”
I slumped back in my chair. “Fuck,” I whispered. “I don’t know if I can do that.”
