The Best Man to Trust - By Kerry Connor Page 0,72

end-of-semester party fall of senior year,” Rachel explained. “Do you remember? I’d barely seen you all semester. You kept bailing on me and canceling every time we had plans, but you promised you’d be there. It was our last chance to be together before I went home for the winter break. You promised. And then you stood me up. Again.

“I wasn’t thinking straight. I was drinking, and I was angry, and I just wanted to hurt you. I got this stupid idea that sleeping with one of your friends was the only thing that would hurt you as much as you hurt me. Tom was there—he tried making excuses for you, but I wasn’t interested in listening—but obviously he never would have done that to you. But Greg would do anything in a skirt, especially when he’d been drinking.”

Fresh tears appeared in her eyes. “I’m sorry. As soon as I woke up the next morning and realized what I’d done I knew what a horrible mistake I’d made. I would have done anything to take it back. I still would. When Greg didn’t seem to remember what happened, I was so relieved. I thought I could just pretend it didn’t happen. I was the only one who seemed to know it had, and all I wanted to do was forget.”

“And then you found out you were pregnant,” Scott said.

Rachel swallowed hard. “Yes,” she whispered roughly, the word barely audible.

“Why didn’t you tell me?”

“I didn’t know how. I was afraid you wouldn’t forgive me. Would you have? Can you forgive me?”

Tellingly, painfully, he just stared at her, as though she was a stranger, not saying a word in response.

“What about me?” Greg asked coldly. “Aren’t you going to ask for my forgiveness?”

Rachel looked at him in shock. “Is that why you’re doing this? Why you killed Haley and Jess? Because I didn’t tell you about the baby?”

“And Kim, don’t forget her. I had to take care of her earlier because I knew you wouldn’t invite her to the wedding. She’s the one who told me what you’d done, what all of you had done. Part of her Twelve Steps, making amends to people she wronged. It didn’t matter. She still had to pay. She still had to be punished. You all did. For conspiring to keep him a secret and give him away. Because you didn’t wrong me, you wronged my son.”

“He has a family, people who love him—”

“He’s dead.”

A hush fell over the room, the words seeming to echo endlessly in the stillness.

He’s dead... He’s dead... He’s dead...

And that was when Meredith understood, Greg’s words from the day before coming back to her.

Losing a child. That’s not something any parent could get over...

Oh, God.

It didn’t seem possible, but Rachel went even paler. “What are you talking about?”

“He died two years ago! Those people you gave him to, they had a pool. He fell in when they weren’t looking and drowned before they even noticed. They didn’t protect him. They let him die. So you are a murderer. As soon as you gave him to those people, you as good as killed him yourself!”

Rachel gave her head a desperate shake. “It was supposed to be better for him....”

“You mean better for you. You didn’t even know, did you? You didn’t even bother to keep track of him. You just gave him away and forgot all about him.”

“No. I—I thought it would be easier not to know....”

“Well, it’s not. I didn’t know about him until it was too late, and it sure as hell isn’t easier. I never got a chance to know him at all.”

“What kind of father could you have been? You drank 24/7. And you really think that you could have been a parent, could have protected him? You?”

“I deserved to have the chance!”

Rather than deny it, Rachel simply closed her eyes, giving her head a small shake.

This was it. Meredith was finally close enough. She took a full step over, in front of Rachel.

Directly in front of the gun.

She watched Greg’s eyes flare in outrage. “Move,” he growled.

“No,” she said, not letting herself react to the anger in his voice. “I’m not going to let you hurt her. You’re going to have to shoot me first. And I don’t believe you want to do that. You might have killed people you thought deserved it, but I don’t think you believe I deserve that, do you, Greg?”

His mouth worked furiously, but he didn’t say anything.

“And if you hurt Meredith