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My lip is still throbbing from Asher’s sucker punch. Even if I had seen it coming, I probably would have let him.
I deserved it.
“I know,” I snap at him.
“I told you—” Edgar starts and I glare at him.
“Don’t forget who employs you—” I threaten him.
He shakes his head. “And I couldn’t give a rat's ass.”
I can’t help but raise an eyebrow while Eli and Asher look just as surprised.
“The only reason I didn’t quit years ago was because of Katelyn and Rosalyn. I couldn’t save Rosalyn no matter how hard I tried. But I refuse to stand by and watch you destroy her daughter.”
“I needed to know how involved she was with everything,” I hiss at him.
“Dude,” Eli sighs. “She’s been here almost a month now. We all know there’s no way she was involved.”
“Her father may have gotten that slimy hospital to keep her for these last four years, but that doesn’t mean she doesn’t need help. She has PTSD and her memories became scatteredimmediately after her mother’s murder,” Edgar says, composing himself.
I grit my teeth. I want to punch the old man in the face. Not just because he’s right but because this only complicates things further. I’ve been holding on to hating Katie for five years, wanting to make sure she went down with her father. But now… now I’ve royally fucked things.
Not only for her, but for me.
“She needs to know everything,” Asher says. “It’s bullshit how in the dark she is.”
Before I can tell him to fuck off, Edgar sighs.
“I’ve already overstepped—” he starts and I glare at him.
“More than overstepped,” I remind him.
“But she needs a true therapist. Someone for her PTSD. I worry…” he falters and for a minute I think he might cry. “I worry if she breaks again, she won’t survive this time.”
The reminder of the thin white scars down her wrist hit me. I thought they were from her own guilt for being part of her mother’s murder. But now all I can picture is fourteen year old Katelyn listening to her mother getting murdered as she begs the culprit to not hurt her daughter.
Only for the fucker to burn the place down with Katie still locked in the closet.
“She tried to kill herself?” Eli asks and Edgar nods.
“A couple of times.”
“Not from guilt,” Asher hisses, glaring at me.
Edgar shakes his head. “Only from her own pain of losing her mother.”
“She has no clue that he killed her?” I ask, and Edgar shakes his head.
“That first night she spent at the hospital, I was with her. They were treating her burns and they had her on pain medications. She cried for hours. I asked her what happened, and she just kept saying she couldn’t get out of the closet to help. Her fingernails were bloody from clawing at the door. The police asked what she heard but the only thing she could remember was her mom's voice. Nothing else. The next morning… she couldn’t even remember how she got out of the closet.”
Eli and Asher eye me.
“So, what are we supposed to do?” Eli asks with a sigh. “If we just tell her everything…”
“It’ll kill her,” I snap.
“And if we don’t?” Asher snaps back.
