Page 57 of Watch Me Burn
Pulling back just a bit, he looked into my eyes. “You know how you get through this? You just fucking do it. One foot in front of the other. Just. Keep. Going. The pain? It’ll get better. It might take time, maybe even years, but trust me, it will get better.”
I dropped my gaze, nervously twisting my fingers. “I . . . I need to talk to my mom.”
His expression grew serious. “Are you going to question her or . . .”
“I’m going to tell her everything. It’s the right thing. I mean, if all of this comes out at some point, she should know first.”
Ethan nodded, his face shadowed by a thought I’d tried to avoid for the longest time. The unsaid question hung heavily between us.
Did she freaking know already?
Throughout this investigation, she never once faltered, even when confronted with details about that hidden trip to Florida. Was it willful ignorance, or had she been aware all along?
It was time to delve into conversations about “Dad” again. But this time, with a heavy heart and no nostalgia in our voices.
Chapter 27
Anna
The air in my mom’s house was just as hostile as it was after the Florida trip. But this time, I didn’t enter with my own share of spite. Holding Ethan’s hand, I moped into my mother’s living room guiltily, the weight of what we knew too great for me to even feel comfortable sitting down on the sofa.
My mother raised an eyebrow, scowling. “What is it with you two? You begged me to let your convict boyfriend inside my house again, and now you’re too aloof to even show basic manners?”
Of course, my mother’s sharp tongue never failed to spark a flame in me. But it quickly died down as I registered the sadness in her eyes. If resurfacing my father’s case was enough to doom her to this state, what would finding out her husband was a sexual predator do?
Ethan squeezed my hand. I looked up at him, the rays from a nearby window highlighting his cheekbones. His lips curved up warmly as he encouraged me to settle down next to my mother.
“You can do this,” he whispered. I nodded.
When I plopped down next to my mother, I showed her two cassettes from the cabin.
“What’s this?” my mother immediately demanded.
I choked on my own saliva, overcoming my rigid body to speak the truth clearly.
“Dad’s . . .”
Damn, that wave of nausea was back. I fought it, forcing the bile down. I took a deep breath, summoning every ounce of guts I had.
“Dad’s sex tapes,” I finally said. “Evidence of his abuse of underaged schoolgirls.” I placed a cassette into her hands. “If you don’t believe me, we can watch this. I have an old VHS player in the car. But I advise against it. It’s . . . it’s something you can’t unsee, and you will never sleep again.”
She stared down at the cassette, her face a blend of confusion and horror. “I don’t know . . . what to say,” she stammered, her hand moving unconsciously to her throat, grappling for words.
The room was wrapped in a tense silence, the weight of our unspoken thoughts pressing down.
“On that day, someone took Dad’s life, and it wasn’t Ethan,” I said softly, my voice tinged with sadness. “Given all that we’ve uncovered about Dad, the list of possible suspects is endless. But I’m not giving up. I’m going to use this evidence to reopen Ethan’s case. I aim to show the state’s attorney and the court that Dad had many enemies who might’ve wanted him gone. And I won’t stop until I find out who it was and ensure Ethan’s name is cleared.”
My mother’s eyes shot up in fear—it was as if I had struck a deeply buried secret.
“Mom, is there anything you might want to tell me?”
She just stared at the tape in her trembling hands.
“Did you notice anything the day of Dad’s murder? I know you and Nathan went shopping that day, but if there was even the smallest sign that something was about to go wrong, it’d really help to let us know. Did Dad have any enemies? Did you know . . . about any of this?”
Lips trembling, my mother shook her head. “You already know what I’ve told you. The afternoon of your father’s murder, I was with Nathan at the mall. Neither of us heard a peep about an enemy or these allegations.”
“Acts,” Ethan corrected. “Not allegations. They are all documented on tape.”
