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She twisted around to look at the entrance of the restaurant, but still didn’t see Remy. “No. Of course not.”
“Remy won’t be coming to meet you for breakfast, Ismay,” he said. “He’s been arrested.”
She felt like he’d just tossed a glass of cold water in her face. “Wh-what for?” she stammered.
“His mother called me late last night. And what she had to say changed everything.”
“What do you mean?”
“It was Remy who was doing the peeping way back when, even though Bastian took the blame. With identical twins, it can be hard for witnesses to get the details straight. But she got him off, so she didn’t think it would matter which boy it was. Then you found that duffel bag in Remy’s closet, and she knew the behavior hadn’t stopped—it’d only grown worse.”
“But... Remy wasn’t even around when that duffel bag was removed from the closet. How could—”
“He asked Bastian to get it for him,” he interrupted. “He was mad that Bastian made you move into his room and was afraid you’d find it.”
“And Bastian did it? Why didn’t he say no?”
Livingston shook his head. “Why do brothers do a lot of things?”
“You believe him?”
“I do. Bastian even showed me a text where he wrote backI got it. It’s in the attic. And that’s right where we found it early this morning.”
She set her napkin on the table. “Wait! You’re saying Remy was going to let Bastian take the blameagain?”
“He felt his brother didn’t have anything to lose.”
“While he was about to become a doctor,” she said, catching on.
“Exactly. That’s why he thought his mother would go along with it again, too.”
“You’ve got to be kidding me! What about my underwear? Why would Bastian take them unless—”
“He claims that was just bad judgment, a small way to get back at Remy for cheating with Lyssa. He was planning to have Remy find it in his things, so he’d think the two of you had become...sexually intimate.”
She gaped at him as she tried to absorb this information. “I—I can’t believe it.”
“I don’t blame you. But it’s clear Bastian both loves and resents his brother. It’s complicated, and we’ll probably never completely understand it.”
“So...did Bastian pull on the steering wheel when he saw me and Jack on the road?”
“I don’t think so. He claims Remy swerved right at you, and I, for one, believe him.”
Strangely enough, so did Ismay. She’d suspected it all along; she’d just let herself be talked out of it. “Why would his mother come forward now?”
“They were young back then. She convinced herself peeping was somewhat normal for a boy of that age. But the duffel bag and all the underwear inside it, as well as something Bastian yelled at Remy about Lyssa one night, finally convinced her that Remy has a serious problem.”
Ismay was almost afraid to ask. “What’d he yell?”
“She claims that Bastian was screaming at Remy forkillingLyssa, that Lyssa was yelling at Remy the night of the party, trying to get him to leave Bastian alone, and Remy lost his temper and shoved her so hard she hit her head on the bathtub.”
“Why were they in the bathroom?”
“She was crying. Bastian went in there to comfort her, and Remy followed them, causing trouble. The two boys started throwing punches and they nearly fell down the stairs. Then they stumbled into the living room, where they broke a bottle of tequila and eventually knocked over a candle.”
“And Remy’s been able to live with that?” she asked.
“That’s the other reason his mother came forward. As smart as he is, she knows he doesn’t feel the empathy and guilt he should.”
