Chapter 5 - BROOKE
We found Brooke barefoot in the gazebo behind the mansion.
She held the lipstick.
“Sorry about the closet.”
“That’s your opening?” I asked.
“I panicked.”
“You set fire to my house.”
“It was cardboard.”
“Inside a house.”
“Yeah. That part was bad.”
Natalie approached.
Brooke backed away.
“Don’t.”
Their reunion was not beautiful.
It was awkward, angry, and unfinished.
Brooke said Vivian had convinced her that Natalie no longer wanted her.
Then she noticed Margaret.
“You.”
Margaret froze.
Brooke had met her near a bus station the previous week.
She returned a silver bracelet Margaret had lost.
Then she pointed at Margaret’s bruises.
“Vivian did that.”
“You saw it?”
“Yes. In the garage.”
Margaret whispered, “Please.”
Brooke continued.
“She wasn’t alone.”
I looked at Mom.
“There was a man with her,” Brooke said. “The guy she’d been sending money to.”
May you like
The online scammer had come offline.
