Riker’s POV
We were at the hospital, Renee was taken care of. She was still unconscious though. I was sitting in her hospital room, her mom and brother hadn’t shown up yet. Ross was sitting in the waiting room with Ratliff, still trying to get him to calm down, telling him it wasn’t his fault. I was just so mad with Sky. I loved her, and she faked her death. Then she comes back and almost gets her sister killed. What was going on?
Cameron walked in the door, I said, “Cameron? What are you doing here?” He came over to me and took a seat. He said, “My mom fell down the stairs, actually my dad pushed her. They were fighting again, so you can forget those wedding invitations. Well, so I saw Ross in the waiting room. What happened?” I said, “Renee was shot.” He said, “Oh man.” The look in his eyes were suspicious, he looked like it didn’t surprise him.
I said, “Yeah, she’ll be fine. She just needs some time. You’d know anything about this?” he said, “It’s my fault.” I said, “What?” He said, “I saw Charlie walking down the street. I ran up to him, drew attention to him. I knew they faked their deaths. I used to be friends with him. But that’s totally over, since I left.” I said, “Forget it, I just need you to answer something, what was in the envelope with the wedding invitation? The little piece of paper.”
He looked like he didn’t want to tell me, he said, “I’m so sorry, I didn’t mean to. I needed the money, I need to get out of my house.” I said, “What are you talking about?” He said, “Sky’s dad paid me to bully Renee. It hurt me every time I did it. I’m sorry. I was kind of in between, like, I didn’t want to do it, but I kept hurting her.” I said, “Cameron, Sky’s dad is dead. He couldn’t have paid you. And he thought that Renee was dead.”
He said, “You have no clue how much you don’t know Riker. That piece of paper? It was a warning, a silent warning. It said that her dad was still alive.” I said, “No, he was shot, right in the chest.” He said, “But he didn’t die. It was kind of like a ‘screw you’ kind of thing. Connor didn’t kill Mr. Reed, it was all fake, all in his plan. Renee, Sky, and Charlie dropped their guard a bit when he died. But it was only a matter of time. He knew the kids would fake their deaths to get away from the ‘bad people’. They don’t know that it’s just Michael’s team.” I was in shock, “How do you know all of this?”
He said, “We are all connected. You don’t know it, you can’t understand. It’s complicated. Carissa, Erin, Alana, Connor, Chase, everyone. Everyone you know is connected to this. But there’s one person, I don’t know who, he or she is Mr. Reed’s like, secret agent. Whoever that person is, that’s who’s controlling things for him. You can’t trust anyone.” I said, “Get out.” He said, “What? I’m trying to help you. He’s coming.” I said, “Get out of here!”
