The Secrets We Keep

The Thirty-Ninth Chapter

Christopher

I haven't been in the library since Hayden and I had our one and only tutoring session. I wait here now in the same spot. I have my feet propped up on the table in front of me and despite the many meaningful glaring looks from the head librarian, keep them there until I see Nathan force open the heavy oak doors. He's followed by a tired-looking Hayden and her brother who looks like he doesn't want to be here. 

They cross over the gunmetal-green carpet and head over to me. 

"What the hell is this for?" Damien demands and turns a chair around to sit in it backward. 

Instead of answering, my gaze goes to Nathan who's pulling out a chair for Hayden. She thanks him sweetly and the googly eyes he gives her in return make me want to gag. 

"You two are disgusting," I say instead of the friendly, 'Glad you've got your shit together and got back together' speech. I swing my legs down to the floor and turn my attention back on the older Andrews sibling. "And you're here because it's obvious the police think we had something to do with Amelia's death."

Damien's eyes harden as he looks at me. "And that means we all have to sit around here and hold hands while they investigate?"

I sigh and cross my arms over my chest. "No, it means we should try and work out everything that happened that day, because I don't know about you, Andrews, but I'm pretty sure none of us here did it. Which means we should go through everything that happened that day to see if any one of us did see the actual killer."

"I hate to admit it," Hayden says, rubbing at the space under her eyes. "But Christopher's right." My eyebrows rise but I don't interrupt. "And I think if we go over that day in detail, maybe we'll realize we saw something that we didn't know was a sign."

"Well I still think this is pointless," Damien says but his tone isn't so cruel with his sister. His eyes scan her face and his lips dip. "And you look ridiculously tired. What the hell is wrong with you?"

"Truthfully?" She says and her eyes go to Nathan before she speaks. "I had a fight with Grace."

"Grace?" Nathan says her name slowly. "What happened with her?"

Hayden shrugs. "When I got called in by Reyes, she asked me about the diary. She thought I'd been the one to rip out the other pages. But I hadn't so when I saw Grace again, I asked her, and... let's just say it didn't go well." 

Nathan's lips harden to a thin line and when I look at him, I can see him thinking the same thing I am. Why would she get rid of those pages? And, am I in them? 

I won't lie and say the possibility isn't there. I wasn't exactly friendly or kind to Amelia and Nathan and her had a rollercoaster relationship that could rival any 'will-they, won't-they' television couple. But I find my eyes going to Damien next. 

"So where do we start?" He asks and his eyes find mine. "Do you want me to repeat everything that happened that day or what?"

"How about what Detective Reyes asked you?" Nathan answers. Both our eyes shoot to him and I can see Damien's narrow in on where Nathan's draped his arm over Hayden's chair. 

"What did she ask you? You were the first to be questioned so you start," Damien says, a tad defensively. 

Hayden cranes her neck to watch Nathan's answer. He keeps his eyes on the lamp on the table as he says, "Amelia wrote about me a lot and she wanted to know my view of some of the instances."