Lilith and Emile were known as Lexington Preparatory's "It" couple, that is until Emile becomes the prime suspect for her murder.
With every passing minute, each interview becomes more and more muddled with no clear suspect. Only one thing does beco...
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the pawn pt. 1
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"WHERE WERE YOU when Lilith died?"
"I—" Emile stuttered, his hands were clammy, and his eyes were flittering from corner to corner, unable to meet the interrogator's eyes. "I was in my dorm."
When Emile got to the police station, they immediately led him to an interrogation room adjacent to the suspect processing area. The lighting was dim, with only one lamp hanging from the ceiling, and the only furniture in the room was two chairs and a table. The walls looked soundproof, and the observation mirror made Emile queasy. The worst part of it all was when they left him alone inside and made him wait. Emile wasn't sure how much time passed before Detective Romano—the person in charge of the investigation—came inside with a not-so-sorry smile, apologizing for the wait.
"Were you with someone?"
"Yes..." Emile hung his head in shame, playing with the lapels of his coat. "I was with Amira."
"Lilith's best friend?" The woman who was questioning him raised an eyebrow. Emile knew exactly how he sounded, and he didn't bother saying more. It wasn't like Detective Romano couldn't fill in the blanks herself.
His relationship with Lilith had been dwindling for quite some time. And if it weren't for her dying, Emile knew they would've broken up, eventually. At least between them, the relationship would be over, but to others, Lilith would still play the role of a doting girlfriend. She wouldn't risk the unwelcome whispers about her.
He was sad, yes, but deep down, Emile Martel was relieved out of his goddamn mind. It had been over three years since he started dating Lilith. At one point, he was sure he was in love with her, but that eventually faded away as Lilith became an unrecognizable person. She was no longer the girl who made his heart flutter when she picked up his books in the library where they first met. She became... empty.
And Emile never knew why. It was as she had shut the world out, and no matter how hard Emile tried to get her to open up, she would always brush him off with a sickeningly sweet smile.
"Everything's fine, Emi," Lilith said his nickname—one she gave him the day they started dating—in a loving manner. It was as if she knew how to make him think he was crazy for ever thinking anything was wrong. "You're just overthinking it."
"The crime scene shows no forced entry," Detective Romano flipped through her notes, breaking Emile's train of thought about the past. "Do you have any relation to the person who found her?"
"Yasmin?"
"She was Lilith's roommate, correct?"
"I personally never talked to her," he answered truthfully. "We would run into each other in the hallways, but she never said anything to me. And I've never seen Lilith talking to her much either."
"Yasmin found Lilith with multiple stab wounds around her abdomen and chest when she came back from work," the detective's voice was monotone. Her face reminded Emile of professional poker players his father played with every Sunday. "So while you were with Amira, Yasmin was working at her mother's diner. Do you have an idea who wanted to hurt Lilith?"
"I don't know," he closed his eyes. He wanted to get out of here as fast as possible. "Everyone liked Lilith, and she was never mean to anyone. I didn't know Yasmin worked?"
"Well, she is a scholarship student," the detective mentioned nonchalantly. "As of now, the motive is still unclear. How would you describe your relationship with Lilith?"
"There isn't much to say," Emile sighed. "I never truly knew her... I feel like our relationship became something of convenience to her. She would sometimes go somewhere and come back with bruises around her arms. Whenever I asked her, she would brush me off. By the end of our relationship, this would happen once a month, and eventually, I stopped asking."
"Can you tell me more details about the bruises?" Detective Romano placed her elbows on the metal tabletop.
"I've only seen them a few times. I remember seeing her with Haruka once behind the school," Emile didn't want to open his past wounds, but there was no other choice. "They were arguing about something, but I couldn't hear them, and I left when I saw her step forward from the wall and kiss him. He grabbed her wrists and kept them behind her back. That was the first time I ever saw her angry, and it was also around the time Amira and I started seeing each other behind her back."
Emile was bitter and ashamed. Lilith never showed him any emotion besides glowing positivity. He was angry Lilith thought she couldn't be herself around him. Emile always tried to show Lilith how much he loved her, but it was all in vain. When he witnessed their tight embrace, Emile wanted her to hurt as much as he did, and what better way would that happen if he didn't fuck her best friend too?
"Are you saying Haruka made those bruises?"
"I don't know what to believe or think at this point," Emile gritted his teeth. "All I know is that my best friend and my girlfriend were making out, and Lilith didn't bother breaking up with me."
"Without an explanation of what happened, people always assume the worst." Detective Romano got up from her seat and paced from the corner of one side of the table to the other.
"I don't understand what you mean," Emile shifted in his seat. From the way he understood the detective's words, if there was a reason why Lilith was killed, the consequences for the perpetrator would be less severe. "As I said earlier, I was with Amira until the next morning."
"Tell me more about your relationship with her," Detective Romano crossed her arms after tightening her ponytail. "Amira doesn't seem to be the type to sleep with her best friend's boyfriend."
"Before Lilith and I started dating," Emile recalled. It was so long ago that the possibility never occurred to him. "She told me she liked me, but a week later, Lilith became my girlfriend."
"I see," the detective nodded. "This is valuable information. However, some things in your story don't add up."
Emile waited for her to continue. He tried to calm his fidgeting legs, but the longer he stayed in this room, the more his mind started to unravel.
"I will ask you this again, Mr. Martel, where were you when Lilith Norden died?"
"I told you," he insisted. "I was with Amira the entire night."
"Then explain why there is footage of you leaving your dorms at 11:53 p.m., the time around which Lilith died." Detective Romano slammed her hands on the table, causing Emile to flinch at the noise. "Lilith's death was premeditated. Now tell me why you did it."
