Recognition.
Something breaking open.
“I promised her,” she breathes. “But you all knew that. I already told everyone, but they said they didn’t believe me. But Daniel and the others knew the truth.”
Yeah.
There it is.
“She lied to you,”the man says.
That does it.
“Careful,” I warn.
But he keeps going.
“Your friend wasn’t the victim you thought she was,” he says. “She was connected.”
My blood goes cold.
Connected?
“To what?” Tessa asks, barely holding it together.
He smiles.
“There it is. The question you should’ve asked years ago.”
That’s enough.
He’s breaking her.
Not happening.
I step forward.
Gun steady.
“Conversation’s over.”
And this time—
I mean it.
He smiles.
Slow.
Knowing.
51
Ace
“Walk away now,” he says, “and you’ll never know the truth.”
Silence drops.