The Summer We Fell (The Summer, #1)(88)

Ben sounds confident, but Ben always sounds confident. And he might just be trying to shut me up.

I’m deposited in a room with poor lighting and a two-way mirror. Metal chair, cheap wood table, just like they show on TV. I assume that any minute now, two detectives will walk in to play good cop, bad cop. One will offer me water while the other one throws chairs.

I wait and wait, but no one enters, and I finally rest my head on my folded arms and try to come up with a back-up plan in case Ben and Harrison fail. I’ve got nothing, though. In the end I just think of Luke beside me, swaying in a hammock, telling me it’s all okay. And that’s when I finally start to cry.

I’m not sure when the tears give way to sleep, but I’m jolted awake by the sound of the door opening. I have no idea how much time has passed.

“You’re free to go,” says a guy in a uniform.

I stare at him, waiting for stipulations. Waiting for him to tell me Ben posted bail or that I’ve got to appear in court in an hour. “Just like that?”

He arches a brow. “Were you hoping to stay?”

I’m led to the processing desk, where they return my clutch and heels. Harrison is waiting at the end of the hall, still in his tux.

My mouth opens and he shakes his head, warning me not to say anything yet. It’s only when the door shuts and we start walking down the hall that he speaks. “Luke’s fine.”

“But is he out?”

He shakes his head again. “Not yet, but I think he will be.”

“I don’t understand,” I whisper. “If they had enough to arrest us, what could have changed?”

“Their evidence is entirely circumstantial. Luke’s leash around Danny’s ankle proves nothing.

Grady told them about your affair with Luke and your fight with Danny on the night he died—that gave them motive, but they don’t have that anymore, either. Donna took care of it.”

I stop in place. “Donna?”

“She told the police that she spoke to Danny that evening and he said he was going to take the



same jump Luke did.”

I was sitting right next to Danny when he spoke to Donna. There was no mention of the jump at all.

My brow furrows. “What? That’s not—”

He cuts me off with a warning glance and a hand on my arm. His smile, though, is gentle. “She loves you and Luke like you’re her own, Juliet.”

“She lied, ” is what he’s saying. She learned tonight that Luke and I were together, and that Danny jumped because of what we did, and she still lied to save us both.

But does it mean she’s forgiven us too? I can’t imagine anyone would be capable of it.

He leaves me at the entrance to the lobby, telling me he’s got to handle some stuff for Luke. I walk out alone to find Donna waiting. She rises, holding out her arms, and I go straight to her like the child I still am, on the inside. The scared fifteen-year-old who isn’t sure anyone has ever cared about her.

I have my answer at last. She cared. All along. Just like Luke did.

“I’m so sorry,” I whisper.

She hugs me close. “I’d do anything for my children… all of my children. I'm not stupid. I know there’s a lot going on I’m unaware of. But the one thing I know beyond a shadow of a doubt is that neither you nor Luke would ever have intentionally hurt my son. This wasn’t your fault, Juliet. We weren’t fair to you. I realized that long ago.”

“But I—”

She shakes her head. “You needed us, and we used that to our advantage. I wanted a daughter, and Danny wanted an easy love story, something uncomplicated, but that’s something you can’t have with a complicated girl. We walked over you and you never said a word.”

“I had nothing to complain about. You saved me.”

She squeezes my hand as she blinks back tears. “Oh, we hammered that one home, didn’t we? We told you in a thousand ways how lucky you were, just so you’d stay in your place.” She leads me to a chair and sits beside me. “I suspected you and Luke had feelings for each other. If I’d been better and stronger, I’d have let you go, but I wanted what was best for me more than I wanted what was best for you. You loved him right from the very start, didn’t you?”

“I’m sorry,” I whisper. “I loved Danny, too, but it was different.”

She wraps an arm around me and my head falls to her shoulder. “I know, honey,” she says, and I can hear the smile in her voice. “Why do you think I asked you both to come back here to help me?”

We sit like that for a long time, and inside me, a window opens. There was never a single sermon the pastor gave that made me believe in something bigger than myself. But a love like Donna’s, forgiveness like Donna’s, is too huge, and too lovely, to have ever occurred by chance.

Maybe I still don’t believe in God, but I believe in her and Luke, and right now…that feels like enough.

IT’S three in the morning when Libby walks in. I sit up straight, tense. She gives me an uncertain wave as Harrison ushers her into the bowels of the station.

I’m not sure what she’s doing here or what I’ll tell her if she wants to talk on the way out. I’m sure Grady has given her a very different version of what happened that night, and maybe I should just let her think it. She’s having his kid in a matter of months, after all—my warnings would come a bit too late.