Tell Me True (Call Me Cat Trilogy #3)(32)

"So now you're just going to kill everyone who was in the club, and what? Get away alive and without blame?"

He laughed. "Exactly. I honestly thought you would figure this out sooner, but like your mother, you have a soft spot for people. It's your greatest weakness, Catelyn." His hands continued to explore my body as I tried to think of a way out.

"Oh, and there's more." He leaned in and whispered in my ear as his hand slipped down my pants. And he confirmed without a doubt what I'd already suspected.

"You won't get away," I said.

"Yes. I will. I am, after all, Augustus. Do you know what Augustus means, child?"

I shook my head.

"Great." The word was almost a prayer. He looked far off as he said it, the same look I’d seen on his face many times before.

And as he lost himself, worshipping his own greatness, I grabbed Jon's gun and shot him dead.





Chapter Thirty Eight


Heart's Truth


THE NIGHT OF THE CRUISE


I SAT STUNNED as I watched Maxwell's body float by, his skin already discolored from the water and death, or maybe it was just the moonlight playing tricks on my mind. He was face-down, which was a small blessing, but I could imagine his face. Would it be scared? Confused? At peace? Some macabre part of me wanted to turn him over to see, but he'd already moved out of reach.

Jon grasped for me and I accepted the comfort of his hug for a moment before pulling back and staring at the rope ladder.

"We'll be together after this," he said, his voice thick with need. "Right? You'll be mine?"

I hid my heart from him, my heart that belonged to Ash and always would. Jon only knew the part of the plan he needed to, the part that would allow us to catch the real Midnight Murderer. But he didn't know my heart, and I couldn't let him see it.

Not yet.

"Yes, you and me. We'll be together. But first, we have to finish this."





Chapter Thirty Nine


Death Toll and Screaming Monkeys


PRESENT DAY


COVERED IN BLOOD, shaking uncontrollably, I ran through the burning yacht to find Ash and Bridgette. A crew member tried to stop me as I turned the corner, but I pushed him away and he shrugged and ran to the life boats.

I heard helicopters in the distance and I kept running, my feet bleeding from glass and debris as the yacht shook and began to sink.

And then I heard the most beautiful sound in the world. Ash's voice. Calling me.

I ran into his arms. "You're alive!"

"I am. I've been trying to find you. Bridgette's already been rescued but I wouldn't leave without you. Come, we have to go—now!"

We boarded a helicopter and it flew up as I watched the yacht burn and sink into the ocean, along with all my family's secrets. Ash held me, his strong arms supporting me as we were taken to Massachusetts General Hospital for medical help.

My mind filled with all the revelations of the night, and I tallied up how many lives had been lost this last year, including Molly, the young girl Jon got pregnant and the last casualty of Alpha Pi Omega.

And I wondered if I should tell anyone about Jon. The truth heals, sometimes. I had learned the hard way that sometimes the truth also wounded, and for no good reason. Telling Ash and Bridgette about Jon would just open up wounds that were trying to heal and wouldn't help them recover or move on.

But there were other secrets that needed telling. How much should Ash know about the truth of his parents? What would that do to him?

I considered these questions in the days that followed the tragedy, as investigators tried to make sense of what had happened.

Most of the crew survived. Mr. And Mrs. Brown had gotten out in time and hadn't been injured. Bridgette was recovering and was still pregnant. But the death toll was big.

Ashton and Louise Davenport.

Maxwell Fisher.

Professor George Cavin

Detective Aaron Gray.

And Jon Davenport, though his name would be missing from all official accounts.

So much loss and heartbreak. I modified the truth to spare Ash more pain, and I laid the guilt of what happened on Professor Cavin. He would carry the public weight for everything, and I would live my life being the only one left alive who knew the truth—the whole truth.

It was a burden I would gladly bear to spare my husband and best friend more pain.

***

Months later, Ash surprised me with a honeymoon to Bali. "Do you remember when you were Cat and we used our phone calls to go to exotic locations and make love?" he asked as we boarded our international flight.

"Yes." My heart skipped every time I looked at him, at his smile and the dimple in his chin. At how he looked at me with such love and devotion. The secrets I carried in my heart lightened when I remembered why I carried them instead of sharing them. This man was worth anything and everything to me.

I got a text and read it, smiling. Hurry back. I don't want you to miss the baby being born. ~Bridge I replied. We'll be back in plenty of time. I can't wait to meet my niece or nephew.

She had chosen not to find out the sex, and I knew she mourned for Jon more than all of us. But she'd recovered for the baby and had even gone back to med school at the same time I rejoined law school. I’d had Ash teach me how to invest the small trust my parents left me so I could be more self-sufficient financially, and I'd reframed the one portrait I had of me with my parents and hung it in the living room. I still had mixed feelings about my mother, about what her choices had led to, but I'd taken Bridgette's advice and remembered the mother I knew and loved. The kind, funny, caring woman who had raised me. She would live in my heart forever and I would let the other woman, the criminal I didn't know, rest in peace at the bottom of the ocean with all the other drowned secrets.