put on medication, and when she got pregnant, I was…” Ollie grew quiet, as if remembering the time, many years ago it was. “Happy. I was happy, and I thought we could move on from the past.”
Somehow, I knew that didn’t happen. Call me psychic.
“When I came home one day to find Lorelei dead, I foolishly thought it’d been Lorelei’s doing, that she’d finally succumbed to the demons in her head and ended her own life,” Ollie paused. “I reached out to her family—my first mistake. They’d never really let her out of their sights. The Scotts always have something planned, even if it takes years to come to fruition.”
I blinked, my heart nearly stopping in my chest. Hold up. The Scotts? If Lorelei was a Scott, that meant Ollie’s sons were relatives of Vaughn—and the way he talked about his twins, it sounded like they were the least mentally stable people around.
Was Vaughn the same way? Was it only a matter of time until he snapped?
“Combine the Scotts’ connections with mine, and there was never any investigation. When Celeste was taken, I never thought my own kids would have something to do with it.” Ollie squeezed his eyes shut, shaking his head, as if trying to push the memories away. “They were always smarter than I gave them credit for, and they used my money to do it.”
His money? His money to…
“Of course, I didn’t figure that out until after they left with her. After Celeste’s biological father was found mutilated in an underground bunker in an abandoned warehouse a few towns over, after I came home and found my second wife with her eyes gouged out and her tongue cut off.” Ollie ran a hand over his face, and it was then I understood why he always looked so tired, why he seemed to be perpetually running on fumes.
He’d seen the devil himself. Only this time the devil wore two separate, identical faces. His sons.
“The Scotts came to my rescue again, and now I’m in their debt—a debt which they will never let me forget.” Ollie’s stare locked with mine, and he frowned. “I don’t want you or your mother to worry about anything. Not my fee, and not these murder charges. I will handle everything, Jaz, but in order for me to take care of it, I need to know everything.”
I swallowed. “Everything?” The word came out cringe-worthy. This man had just spilled his secrets to me, so it was my turn. My turn to tell him everything, and yet…even though his tale was one of death and horror, I still felt like mine was worse.
Mine involved death, too. Multiple deaths. Ryan and his friends. Now Brittany. My almost rape. Honestly, the list went on and on. But at this point, there was nothing else I could do but tell him.
“What I’m about to say,” I started, glancing over my shoulder at the closed door, “I don’t want my mom knowing.”
“What you say right now will stay between us, just as I hope you don’t tell anyone else what I just told you,” Ollie said. “Don’t worry about your mother. If need be, I will handle her.”
I heaved a breath, and then I told Oliver Fitzpatrick everything.
And I meant everything.
I told him about what happened with Archer, how I’d unknowingly stepped on Brittany’s toes by riding her claimed dick. I told him what happened to me at that party, thanks to that blonde bitch. I went on about the near-rape at school, how I’d gone to the dance with the new kid and Vaughn Scott—the latter which earned a scowl from him—and how we’d embarrassed her by pulling a prank.
I even told him about Jacob, because I didn’t dare leave anything out that might turn out to be important down the line.
It wasn’t too fun explaining why I’d hired Jacob in the first place, but Ollie looked as if he understood. I mean, talk about awkward, right?
“Jacob was one of the officers handling Celeste’s case,” Ollie told me, to which I could only nod.
“He told me. He…he also told me that your sons blackmailed him to get him off the force.”
At that, all Ollie could do was sigh.
You know, for someone who was sitting in a house where multiple murders had taken place, for someone who was currently being set up for the very same crime, I was handling all of this pretty damn well. I’d have to remember to pat myself on the back later.