sharp gaze pierced through my skin, stinging more than the damn cuts on my hands and knees. “Think about how no one in this room’s life would be better. Only worse.”
With that, he turned and walked toward the door. Over his shoulder, he said, “I have calls to make. Hayle, keep your mother here.”
Then, he was gone, and I was left feeling empty. Because, in part, he was right. Having Lily arrested wouldn’t fix anything. It was my word against hers about the poisoning. There wouldn’t be any other evidence left to uncover all of these years later. And even the black hoodie wasn’t exactly proof of guilt in Bodie’s case.
All that remained was the “unfortunate scene” in the greenhouse. She’d maybe get sentenced to some jail time for assault, but I couldn’t imagine that it would go any further. Who would believe my story that sweet Lily Crowder had come after me with a kitchen knife, intent to kill me?
Hayle certainly didn’t believe me.
The Sharpe brother in question pushed away from the wall and started down the hall toward his mother’s bedroom.
“Stop,” Leo demanded. “We need to talk about this.”
Hayle paused but didn’t turn around. “There’s nothing to talk about.”
“Are you kidding? There’s everything to talk about.”
He shook his head. “Just let me spend these last few hours with Mom before Dad ships her off to god knows where.”
Leo looked ready to pounce on him and drag him back to the living room. But Tristin said quietly, “Let him go,” and, amazingly, Leo listened.
Once Hayle had disappeared behind a closed door at the end of the hall, Leo began pacing. “I can’t fucking believe this. What are we going to do?”
“I don’t know.” Tristin squeezed my uninjured fingertips, and I looked down at my hand. I hadn’t consciously realized he’d been holding it this whole time, but I had a feeling it had helped, anyway. “Do you want to talk to the police? Because, if you do, I’ll drive you down to the station right now. I don’t care what Vincent says about it.”
There was a bite in his voice when he said “Vincent,” as though he couldn’t bear to refer to the man as his father.
“I can’t do that to Hayle.”
Leo halted mid-pace. “Fuck Hayle.”
My chest tightened at the vehemence in his words. This was exactly what I didn’t want to happen.
“No.” I pointed at him, wishing I could march up to him and poke him in the chest. But, without my crutches, I couldn’t even walk that far. “Don’t say that. Don’t even think it. I won’t let you undo all of the progress the three of you have made over the past few weeks. You’ve finally been acting like brothers again, and I refuse to be responsible for destroying that.”
“You’re not responsible. Hayle is.”
“I’m serious, Leo. This whole thing with his mother has to be terrible for him. We—all three of us—need to be patient and supportive.”
“No, we need to be supportive of you. His mother poisoned your mother, Thea. She took her away from you.” His broad shoulders sagged. “Away from us. We all loved her, you know.”
Again, I wanted to cry. But I wouldn’t. This new information about Lily didn’t change anything. Not really.
“Exactly. Lily took my mother away—not Hayle. And the last thing he needs is us blaming him.”
“Don’t you blame him, though?” Tristin asked. “On some level?”
“No.” I didn’t even have to think about it. Whatever had driven Lily to poison my mother had nothing to do with Hayle and everything to do with Lily. “Not in the slightest.”
Leo finally slumped into the chair Vincent had vacated. “Then, what are we going to do?”
“You can start by taking me back to the townhouse. I don’t want to be here anymore.” And, by here, I meant anywhere on the Sharpe property. Anywhere near Lily or Vincent or the memories of what had gone down in the greenhouse.
I had a feeling my next nightmare wouldn’t have anything to do with a tornado or a truck barreling toward me. Instead, it would star a black-haired woman with the face of an angel and the voice of death.
Chapter Five
Thea
It wasn’t until I was back at the townhouse and Tobias stepped out of Tristin’s car that I realized wallowing for the rest of the day was out of the question. As much as I hated to admit Vincent was right about anything, I couldn’t deny that we needed to keep all of the Lily drama a secret.