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“He... bad things, Rory. The worst. She had to be hospitalized, it was that bad. Involved stitches. When she got out, she went to Noah and the counselor first. They put together a case. They almost had him. Emma was the first victim with some evidence.”
“She got him?”
“On video. But she made a rookie mistake somewhere. I’m not sure what happened, but she got mugged the day before she was supposed to make her statement. They took her phone. Destroyed everything.”
My heart plummeted. “Did she go to the press?”
“The biggest paper here—do you know one of their biggest sponsors?”
I could guess.
“Finch?”
Chelsea nodded, her eyes darkening. “That wasn’t the end of it. Two days later, there was an accident near the university. A very tragic one with a drunk driver speeding. The counselor in the case, she...”
Even Chelsea’s voice broke.
“What happened to her, Chelsea?” My hands were trembling.
“She didn't make it. Lasted a few days in the hospital before she succumbed to her wounds. From what we found out, Emma and Noah fizzled out shortly after. She went back home to Ulster County. Benjamin wasn’t in the country when all this was going on.”
“Tell me who the counselor was, please, Chelsea. I have to know.”
It wasn’t that I didn’t know.
It wasn’t that I didn’t feel like I was sitting there, getting stabbed by knives from every angle.
There was more. There was a deep sense of regret, of rage and anger. Of an urge to fight, to help bring justice to all the girls who had come before.
All the little fires who’d been burned out by one fucking man.
“I’ll tell you after I know one thing.”
“Ask me.”
“What will you do next?”
I looked at Chelsea.
“I will talk to Noah first. Find out what the hell he was doing, hiding this from me. And once I’ve figured that shit out, I’m going to find a way to blot Emory Abbot’s existence from this earth.”
I almost expected her to freak out and stop me. But this was Chelsea.
Chelsea would never stop me from doing the right thing.
She actually smiled.
“That’s my best fucking friend.”
I squared my shoulders.
“Her name, Chelsea.”
“June.”
32
Noah
