Page 122 of A Violet Obsession

“That’s not true,” Trevor whispers.

She doesn’t even hear him. “And then he has the nerve to make me put my neck out for you. My career! The career that pays for this house, this life, all of it—to get you a job. Forge a history. Risk everything I've built.” She spreads her hands wide, “You tell me. Why shouldn’t I have made some use of you? Why shouldn’t I have gotten something back for my trouble?”

She laughs then, short and mean. “And you couldn’t even manage that. One simple job. And your fucked-up little head couldn’t follow one simple instruction.”

“What did you do?” Trevor is staring at his wife like he doesn’t know her. And I wonder if he does. “Dawn, what did you do to her?”

“She had Dr. Williams program my brain,” I say.

I keep my eyes on Dawn, not on him.

I can’t look at his face. Not right now. Maybe not ever.

“Where is it?” Dawn’s eyes thin to slits. “I’ll be honest—I didn’t think you were clever enough to hide it from the police. But you did, didn’t you?” Something almost like respect ghosts across her face. “You kept it for yourself.”

“Kept the amethyst that was stolen? You—you actually took it, Lily?” Trevor sounds so disappointed.

Dawn cocks her head at me. “I watched you eat the cookie. I know you did. What went wrong?” Her voice sharpens. “How did you figure it out?”

“The hypnosis worked. To a point.”

“Stick to the truth wherever you can,” Finn had told me. “So the lies have somewhere solid to stand.”

“But when they shot Jeremiah and Bryce, it woke something up in me.” True. “I hid it before the police got there.”

“At Clairmont?” Dawn leans in.

“It’s not there anymore.” I watch her face fall, and I keep talking before she can think too hard about any of it. “I’ll tell you exactly where it is, if you cut me in on whatever you make selling it.”

She stills.

“You have a buyer.” I say keeping my voice even. “You wouldn’t have done any of this without the guarantee of a payout. And the other thieves are dead⁠—"

I lift a shoulder, as if my heart isn’t trying to break my ribs from the inside. “Give me their share. I’m not greedy. But I’m about to lose everything I have, and I need to start over somewhere far from here.”

Dawn considers me.

She actually considers it and for one breathtaking second I think it’s working. I think I have her⁠—

A hard knock at the door.

Then three more.

Everyone in the room goes rigid.

“I’ll get it,” Trevor says, already moving, desperate to be anywhere but in this kitchen.

“Ignore it,“ Dawn’s voice cracks out like a whip. “Trevor. Do not answer that door.”

But he’s already gone.

I hear the front door open. I hear Trevor say something I can’t make out, and then his footsteps coming back, and two heavier sets behind them. He steps into the room with two men at his back, his face looking confused and hopeful at the same time. “It’s the police⁠—”

Dawn’s face goes white.

Her eyes snap to me, pure venom, certain I did this.

But I’m not breathing.