you thought. But not for the reasons you thought.”
I made a strangled noise low in my throat and crossed my arms over my chest as I considered what this news meant for my theory that my half brother was the one personally terrorizing Ollie. “She probably told my old man that Sawyer would be able to walk again. She more than likely didn’t want to take any chances that my father would write him out of the will. She’s obsessed with perfection, and probably believes my father would see Sawyer as irreparably damaged and unworthy of his inheritance if he couldn’t walk again. Savage doesn’t even start to cover it when it comes to those people.”
Vernon waved a hand in the air between us and spoke quickly, in a low tone. “Well, it seems like Sawyer went along with all her weird treatments willingly, right up until Ollie vanished. As soon as she disappeared, all his normal medical records stopped.” Vernon blinked and gave me an intense look. “But, that’s exactly when his criminal records start. The reason I couldn’t find anything was because everything that happened with him after Ollie ran away was locked behind sealed legal documents and court cases.”
I rocked back on my heels as if a strong gust of wind had hit me. I was stunned. Sawyer was crazy, but I never thought he would break the law and get caught. There was no way his mother would let him suffer those kinds of consequences. People of their stature were supposed to be above the law.
“Sawyer got arrested?” It seemed so unbelievable. I couldn’t get my head around it.
Vernon reached out, and now he was the one holding onto my arm so hard that I might bruise. “He didn’t just get arrested, Huck. He got committed.”
“What?” I mean, I said he was crazy all the time, but I never thought anyone else would take his mental condition seriously.
“After Ollie left, he turned his attention to some guy she knew at her previous college. Apparently, she casually hooked up with him and that’s how she found out your brother was spying on her. He had video footage of Ollie and this guy together, and apparently, he went nuts once she was gone and tried to threaten this kid with the footage. He blamed the kid for driving Ollie away. He did not like anyone else touching her, and it obviously severed the small tie he had left to reality.”
I interjected, “She left because her mom passed away and left her some money. She was finally free because Sawyer and his mom couldn’t hold her mom’s health over her head any longer. That guy didn’t mean anything to her.”
I wasn’t sure why I was so defensive about it, but I knew I didn’t like the idea of some other guy being the reason she finally broke free of my brother’s control.
Vernon shrugged and went on, “Unlike everyone enabling Sawyer, this dude did not let Sawyer’s obsessive behavior slide. He also comes from a well-off family and was not about to let your brother steamroll him or mess with his future by leaking a sex tape. He filed a restraining order. He pressed charges for stalking. He pushed back at every turn, and it looks like Sawyer snapped. They even got into a physical altercation at one point. But that might be what made Sawyer realize he couldn’t win in a fight against someone who wasn’t under his thumb. He tried to hire someone to kill the guy. Luckily, his behavior was so concerning, the cops who were handling all the complaints against Sawyer knew something like that might happen. It was obvious your brother was unhinged. Also, because the other guy came from money, they couldn’t look the other way. His parents were just as influential as Sawyer’s mom and your dad. They set a trap, and your brother fell right into it. The hitman he found to kill the guy was an undercover cop. They were going to arrest him, at the very least, on conspiracy to commit murder. It looks like his mom stepped in and tried to bribe the law enforcement officers involved in the case, so she ended up in some hot water too. Sawyer tried to commit suicide before they could take him into custody. For the most part, all of this is buried in redacted court documents, but the trail is bananas when you start to follow it.”