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I glare at him like the pathetic man he is, recognizing the predictable narrative of a man driven by love…blah, blah, blah. Anticipating the next part of the story—she marries the man Paxton despised—I tune him out, scanning the room we’re in. Pictures of a family adorn the walls and various decorations catch my eye. Whose house is this? And where are they?
As he mentions Paxton’s name, my attention snaps back to him. “He was an asshole to that kid. A real jerk. And while his dad tamed Beth’s wildfire, Carl pissed on it. I couldn’t stay and watch him destroy that family. That’s when I moved to Blackburn.”
Why didn’t Paxton tell me about Chip? Did he recognize him when we were at Pearl’s house? Paxton would’ve been a teenager when Chip left town. He should’ve known who he was.
The entire sob story isn’t evoking any sympathy from me. Quite the opposite. He’s a loser consumed by an unhealthy obsession with his high school girlfriend. She took advantage of him, probably by making empty promises that led us here.
“How?” I ask. I didn’t question this when I was with Pearl, but now, knowing that Paxton grew up with Chip and said nothing, I don’t know who or what to believe. “Paxton said he hadn’t talked to his mom in years until she popped up at his work—after everything happened. But how was Pearl so positive that he’d find me?”
He twists his fingers in front of him on the table. “I had seen an article with him and his dog and showed Beth. She was excited to learn he was close, but she figured he’d want nothing to do with her. She wanted to see what he was up to, so she had me put a tracker on his Jeep. That was so long ago, she forgot we had even done that until he showed up in the diner. She had me pull the last year of info to see if he had been to the diner before. We found out that he spent most of his weekends at the ranch.”
Isn’t that illegal? He’s a cop, for God’s sake. She gets crazier by the minute. And he gets more pathetic.
“So, did you at least get the girl in the end?” I ask with a snide tone, lifting a brow, remembering their flirting. “Was it worth ruining your life?” A swift shadow of anger sweeps across his face. His jaw twitches and his eyes darken.
There’s the guy who buried me alive.
“I did until Carl showed up,” he says between clenched teeth.
“Boo-fucking-hoo. You still buried me alive!” I scream, letting my anger roll off me in waves. “You started this horror by putting me in a box and listened to me scream and plead not to do it. How can you sit there and be okay with your life?”
He shoots up, and the chair falls over from the force. “I’m not! Your screams haunt my dreams every night. They will haunt me until the day I die.” His admission hangs heavy in the air, and there’s a tiny glimmer of satisfaction inside me. I hope he lives a long life. “You weren’t supposed to wake up. Beth said you’d still be sleeping and wouldn’t be down there for long by the time Paxton found you.”
I squeeze my eyes shut, attempting to shake off the unbelievable ridiculousness of his words. “I can’t believe you went along with this plan. You’re a cop! You took an oath to protect people, not bury them!” I swallow the knot in my throat. “There is no way you would’ve known for sure that he would find me.”
“We had a plan for that. We would’ve tipped the police off to your whereabouts if he hadn’t found you by late afternoon.”
The thought process they put into this ruse is beyond comprehensible. “If I wasn’t supposed to be awake yet, why torment me? Three shovels at a time! Why?” My voice scratches from screaming so loud.
He picks up the chair and drops back down into it, scrubbing his face. “It wasn’t meant to torment you. It was a way for me to focus on something else. Almost a mechanical movement. It was the moments in between that I regretted every second. But I was in too deep, so I forced myself to continue. It wasn’t intentional.”
“I don’t believe you. For something not intentional, how did it become a thing?” The anger radiates off me. “You or Carl tormented me with that three times bullshit over and over.”
He rubs his temple and sighs. “The college stunt? That was Beth’s idea. She figured it was a trigger for you. That was me. You were pulling away from Paxton, and Beth was worried. She believed that a small push would bring you back to him. They manipulated me over and over, using my fear to fulfill her dream.”
She’s a narcissistic psychopath.
And he’s her minion.
“Where does Carl fit into all of this? Why did Pearl say he did this to me?”
“She was trying to protect me.”
I roll my eyes. How noble of her.
“Carl must’ve bugged Beth’s place, because he knew about what we did to you when he showed up one day. He wanted Beth back. So, he blackmailed both of us. Her into going back to him, and me into telling him everything that happened. Every detail. We made sure not to tell him you had won the lottery, though.”
I blink twice. “Thanks?” Give them the friend of the year award.
His finger pokes at the table, getting defensive. “If he would’ve known, he would’ve found a way to get that money out of you.”
“Why did he take Shanna Clark? Why did he have to kill her?”
“Beth tried to run away. She went and saw Paxton that day to say goodbye. Carl got wind of it. It was his way of punishing Beth. He kept reminding her that it was her fault, she made him do it. It was his way of controlling her. As long as she stayed with him, he’d not do it again.”
“Pearl was with him a couple days ago, flying back from Hawaii. She was still with him. So, why did he take Ari?”
He shakes his head. “I’m not sure. She told me she saw you on the flight when he pulled that stupid stunt, knocking three times. They got into a huge argument afterward. She told him to get out, that she never wanted to see him again. He got physical with her, so she locked herself in the bathroom and called me. By the time I arrived, he was gone, and that’s the last time she saw him.”
