AllFreeNovel
Share Us
My blood turned to ice. “What?”
“Maybe it’s just a coincidence,” Teo said softly.
“Jace,” I said. “Can you check for October 3rd?”
Jace and Teo exchanged a look, until Teo nodded. Jace typed, this time a bit slower. “Yeah,” he said. “That date is also here. What’s the significance of that?”
“It’s not a coincidence,” I said. “That’s Sam’s birthday.”
“It’s like he’s mocking us,” Grayson said, his voice heavy with anger. “Using your birthdays as dates for these meetings. That’s so fucked.”
“Brady was simply giving us information, but I think my dad knew we would find these,” I said. “Which is probably why he instructed Captain Monroe to frame my brother for Brady Thompson’s murder. I, fuck, I need some air.”
I stood up and walked out of the sliding door, toward the pool. I sank into a lounge chair by the pool, staring at the water as my thoughts churned. The realization that my father had known we would discover these messages made my stomach churn. My brother framed for a murder he didn’t commit...at one point, I felt like I needed answers.
Now I knew the truth and the truth was that my father was a psychopath and his blood ran through my veins.
Grayson emerged from the house, his silhouette casting a shadow on the glistening water.
I looked up at him, pinching the bridge of my nose, my headache slowly turning into a migraine. “I’ll go back in a minute.”
Grayson furrowed his brow. “Sof,” he said. “There’s something I need to tell you.”
He took a sharp breath before he spoke, his voice trembling a little. “Brady had your old phone because I left it there,” Grayson admitted, the words falling like lead between us.
I shook my head. “You what?”
Grayson hesitated, his eyes searching mine for understanding. “I, uh, found your phone at Sam’s...when I went to kill him because you know, I thought he was the Orchid Strangler.”
I stood up, suddenly, surprised at how quickly I did it. “It’s been months! And you just...pretended we found it at Brady’s? Why?”
“I did it to protect you from The Viper,” he explained, standing up with a sense of urgency that mirrored the rapid beat of my thoughts.
“Protect me?” I scoffed, incredulous.
“Look, Sofia,” Grayson said, moving closer, his hands reaching out as if he could bridge the chasm that had opened up between us with a simple touch. “I know this is hard to digest, but—“
“No, it’s not hard to digest, it’s fucking ridiculous,” I said. “Why would you do that?”
“I didn’t know if we’d be able to find a link between Brady and the Viper,” he said. “I thought your phone might be the missing puzzle piece.”
“The phone I lost when the Orchid Strangler attacked me? That one?”
“There’s clearly a link between your dad and Archer Holden, okay? Your dad might be the Viper and Holden might have been the Strangler but I think your dad had more of an active role in what happened with Sam than you might realize.”
“And you thought the best way to onboard me to that theory was to lie to me about it, and to keep this secret for months?” I said, my voice dropping to a venomous whisper.
“You really think I would do that?” Grayson asked, his voice tinged with hurt. “Sofia, I wasn’t trying to deceive you. I was trying to protect you. To keep you safe.”
“You were trying to keep me safe by planting my phone in the apartment of a murder victim?”
Grayson sighed. “Okay, so I didn’t think it through,” he replied. “I’m just trying to keep you alive, Sof. We’re all trying to keep you alive.”
“Please,” I said, gesturing at my old phone, which he now had in his hands. “This...you could’ve just told me this. We could have just had a conversation. But that wasn’t good enough for you, was it?”
“That’s not fair.”
“Fair?!” I echoed, my jaw dropping before I spoke. “Admit it, Grayson, you thrive on this—the chaos, the danger. You didn’t want to tell me because not telling me would make it more fun for you. Because this is how you have fun, isn’t it?”
