Chapter 3

CHAPTER THREE

ASHLEY

Fear, confusion, and worry twists my stomach into knots while I wait for my mom to answer her phone. It seems like hours pass, but really it's only a few seconds. By the time the call finally connects, my anxiety is through the roof. I don't give her a chance to speak.

"Did you know?"

"Yes." She doesn't even pretend not to know what I'm talking about.

"He killed Jason! How could they release him?"

"But it's been proven he didn't now, hasn't it?"

"It's wrong! They've made a mistake. I was there . I saw what he did."

"Honey, they wouldn't have released him if the prosecution at the time did everything by the book. That alone gave his lawyer a reason to bring the case to the judge. They don't just take things at face value. That's why they looked at all the evidence again."

"Mom, he?—"

"I had a visit from someone on his legal team a couple of weeks ago, when they were certain there were solid grounds for appeal. They wanted to speak to you, and go over what you saw that night." Her words are like a bucket of ice being thrown over me, freezing my blood.

"You … they … what?" I sink down onto the bed.

"Oh don't worry. I didn't tell them where you are." She sniffs. "Although, I still don't understand why you think you have to hide. It happened so long ago. And none of it was your fault."

"Because I don't want to be forever known as the girl whose brother was brutally murdered by his best friend! "

"Jason was only your half-brother. He was seven when you were born. You barely knew him. You still haven't explained what you were doing at the house at that time of night, anyway."

I ignore the question in her tone. I've stayed silent about why I left the house that night for a long time, and I don't see the point in bringing it up now. It will only upset her.

"He spent every weekend with us until he was eighteen. He was my brother . Just because you didn't like him being around doesn't mean I didn't."

"I didn't have any problem with him spending time with us, Ashley. When I married your father, I was more than aware he came with a son. But his mom had full time custody, so I never really had the chance to develop any kind of relationship with him. You know that. Yes, it's sad that he died … especially in such a horrible way. It was a shock for all of us. But I'm also not so emotionally invested that I can't acknowledge that the authorities may have made a mistake when they arrested Zain for it. I always sa id to your father that it didn't make sense. They were best friends. Closer than brothers."

"You said that at the time. I remember you fighting with Dad when he agreed to let me testify."

Her sigh is soft. "Honey, you were thirteen years old. What you saw would upset anyone , but your father should never have agreed to putting you on the stand. You were too upset, too traumatized. I didn't want you to have to deal with how they'd treat you during the trial. Lawyers aren't known to be gentle."

"You think I got it wrong." My voice is flat. "Do you think I lied about what I saw?"

"Of course not, but I was worried that you might have been mistaken , there's a difference. I thought there was a risk that what you saw that night became jumbled in your head and what you think you saw wasn't what you really saw. Especially with all the questions being thrown at you. You were hysterical when your father got to the station to pick you up. Scared out of your mind by what you walked in on."

She sighs. "I know you think you were close to Jason, honey, but the reality is he was already a grown man when you were thirteen. There were many things about his life that you had no awareness of. One of them was the situation between him, Zain, and Louisa."

"Situation? She was Zain's girlfriend. That was the one of the reasons he was the only suspect."

"She was Jason's girlfriend as well."

"Only because she was cheating on Zain. "

"No, honey. She was openly dating both of them, and they didn't care. It was the talk of the town."

"I don't believe you."

"What reason do I have to lie to you?"

"Did Dad know? Why would Jason be okay with that?"

I wish my dad was here so I could ask him. But I'm also glad he's not. He'd be devastated to discover that the man who murdered his son has been released. Something broke inside him with the loss of Jason.

"I don't know. Maybe. It wasn't something we talked about." There's a short silence before she speaks again, her voice careful. "Ashley, I don't think you have anything to worry about. You were one person amongst many that gave witness statements about the case. There were witnesses that said they saw Zain and Louisa arguing a couple of days before the murder. Then he was seen fighting with Jason by someone else. You were a young girl. A girl who walked into a room where her brother had been murdered. The first thing you saw was Zain. What else are you going to think happened?"

"You just said you didn't believe me."

"That's not what I said, sweetheart. I absolutely believe you walked in and found Zain standing over their bodies. I just don't think you walked in on him killing them. I didn't back then either. It never made sense to me. Why would he just stand there? Even after you walked in, he didn't try to silence you."

There isn't a lot I can say to that. Her reasoning makes sense, but if I allow myself to think I made a mistake, then that means I helped imprison an innocent man … and I'm positive that Zain Ryder is anything but innocent. I'm sure what I saw was right.

But are you?

"I was thinking about coming home for the weekend." There's a tremor to my voice that I can't stop.

"That'd be nice. It's been a while since you came to visit. But won't that defeat the reason you changed your name and moved away?"

She's not wrong, but it's not like I'll be sending out a press release announcing who I really am. Everyone already knows who I am back there. It's the rest of the country that doesn't, and that's where it's important I'm not viewed as the murdered Jason Trumont's kid sister.

"I want to go and visit Jason's grave."

"Well, you know your room is always waiting for you. Just let me know when you're going to arrive so I can air it out before you get here." Her voice turns brisk. "I hate to cut this short, but I have to go, honey. I'm meeting friends in half an hour and I have to finish getting ready and drive across town to Randall's."

Randall's is a coffee shop in the town where I grew up. Mom has been meeting with her friends there every week for as long as I can remember, for coffee and gossip.

"Say hi to them for me."

"I will. Will Scott be joining you when you come home?"

Shit . Scott .

In my shock at hearing about Zain, I forgot all about him. He has no idea about my past, and I'd rather keep it that way. Every time he's met my mother, I've made her swear not to say anything about Jason. I've never taken him back to Whitstone with me. Mom has always come to visit me here.

"No. He won't be able to get time off work at such short notice, so I'll be alone."

"That's a shame. It would be nice to see him again."

"Next time you come to visit, I'll make sure he's available."

The conversation turns briefly to how much Mom likes Scott, and I end the call feeling a lot more relaxed than I had when it started.

She's right. I'm worrying for nothing. Zain will have more important things to deal with than singling out one person who took the stand in his trial. The shock of hearing about his release sent me into a blind panic, but now that I'm calmer I can see that I was overreacting.

I'll go home, visit Jason's grave, spend a couple of days with my mom, then come back here and return to my life where no one knows who I am.