How to Kill a Man in Thirty Seconds

Chapter 75: A Scuffle

PRESENT

Time stopped. I stared, Colton Hunt's words ringing in my ears but not really sinking in. It was your mother.

Shock. That was all I registered. Disbelief.

I had forgotten to breathe; my brain was refusing to form coherent thought.

No. It's a lie!

Panic was starting to set in. My exhales suddenly grew ragged.

I remembered then, my mother's inability to sit through a conversation about my father, how she would combust into tears at the mere mention of his name. I remembered the severe depression she'd fallen into after his death, how she'd locked herself in his room, refusing to so much as look at her children.

Was it guilt? It couldn't have been. It was grief.

Horror engulfed me, a feeling of impending doom swallowing me whole.

I remembered how she'd been beyond certain that Mary wasn't sexually involved with my father. How she'd suddenly packed up one night, and moved us miles away from Morgan and all our friends. I'd assumed it was because she detested him.

It couldn't have been guilt. It just couldn't.

My heart was pounding erratically in my chest, my head shaking in desperation.

It's not mum. It can't be her. She's not a murderer.

Suddenly, I recalled how I'd caught Kimberly sneaking around our house the morning before Mary had been arrested. Had Kim suspected my mother, interrogated her once I'd left? Had that caused Colton to frame Mary that very same day? Because he'd realized the cops were closing in on mum and would eventually get to him?

It couldn't be.

The morning before my father's death, mum hadn't bid him goodbye; dad and I had assumed she was busy with Lily, but I later realized my sister was still in her crib, crying. Mum hadn't even been home; she'd left the house without our knowledge. Had she found out about the affair?

No, of course not.

I remembered how my mother had told the investigating officers that she had been taking care of us when the murder had happened. I had agreed, hadn't thought much of it at all in my distraught state. But we had fallen asleep halfway through that night.

Was that why Adrian had begged me to stay quiet about my discoveries? Had he been lying when he'd insisted he wanted to protect his father? Had he, in fact, been fighting to protect me from a world of hurt and betrayal?

Realization hit me like a train at two hundred miles per hour. Tears slipped past my cheeks; I didn't have it in me to sob, to scream despite the gut wrenching shock that was suddenly burning through me.

I had hit rock bottom.

This time, I had dug myself into a hole so deep, I could no longer see the outside, let alone actually crawl my way to it.

So overwhelmed by the tumultuous rush of emotion, I nearly missed the sudden noise that sounded from upstairs. It was the sound of footfalls.

My heart leapt in my chest. A scream erupted from my lips and I'd stumbled to my feet before my brain had even processed what I was doing.

"I'M HERE!"

My injured leg burned underneath the weight of my body but the adrenaline was pounding in my veins, giving me a final rush of energy.