Page 192 of No One Was Supposed to Die at This Wedding

And if Harper’s phone hadn’t been there, she’d have found something else to put in it first.

Maybe Harper. Maybe me.

Fuck.

“Fred is an idiot,” Emma says, finally breaking her silence.

“Yes.”

“But Ken...” I keep my eye on Emma. “She killed Ken. It could’ve been done by a woman full of rage, and it opened up somany possibilities. Everyone would assume it was a mistake for Fred. But it could also have been Connor. Which is why Cathy is here.Sheinvited her. Emma knows all about Cathy. So why not add her into the mix? Make it seem like it might be about me and Connor. The more suspects, the better.”

A lump forms in my throat. If she killed Ken because he looked like Fred, was she going to kill me because I looked like her?

Despite everything, I shy away from that possibility, but I shouldn’t.

Because once you see murder as the answer to your problems, then all bets are off.

“And Shawna?” Oliver asks.

“That was her, too. She and Fred were alone for enough time. She told me she took off her dress and had a quick shower. There’s a back door in her room. I saw it when we were getting ready for the wedding. Is that what happened, Em? Shawna came to see you? She was coming to warn you. She knew Fred and Simone were planning to kill you. And you couldn’t have that. Not after everything you’d gone through to keep it silent. So you stabbed her and shoved her out into the rain and you thought she was dead. That you could blame it on Simone. So she’d go to jail, and Fred would die before the weekend was out. She hadsomethingin mind. I’m not sure what...Oh! That’s why she had the knife she used on Shawna. She was going to kill Fred in his sleep. It must be here, somewhere. Hidden.”

“Or she got rid of it after Officer Anderson left. That’s why she wanted to be alone,” Oliver says. “To get rid of any remaining evidence.”

“That makes sense.”

“What about me?” Tyler asks. “If I was locked up, I couldn’t be responsible.”

“No,” I say. “It wasFred’splan to blame you for Emma’s murder. But then he had to kill José, so he shifted to pinning that murder on you. He must’ve decided to wait to kill Emma in some other way. Or to live off her money like he said earlier. Either way his problems were solved. Or so he thought.”

“But what about what I knew about Emma? I could’ve told on her.”

“I think Emma was pretty sure you wouldn’t. You came here to confront her instead of telling Officer Anderson, didn’t you? You do want to get back with her. If she had to, she’d string you along until she’d convinced you she didn’t do anything.”

Tyler’s head hangs with the truth of what I’m saying, and I can’t even look at Emma now.

“Did we forget anything?” I ask. “The murder being announced—Emma approved the schedule. She told me so herself. And she didn’t invite her parents to the wedding. She wouldn’t want them around for this. She showed me the note Fred left for her so I could testify that she was the intended victim. Wait.That’swhat she was going to do—she was going to kill Fred and say he attacked her. Then she’d uncover his plot to kill her and say she had to defend herself and the police would believe it because it was true.”

I think it through again. This is what we were missing all along—two interwoven plots, one spurred by the other. Thereweretwo things to diagnose. Because what do doctors know about solving murders?

“Aren’t you going to defend yourself, Emma?” Tyler asks.

“What’s the point? You think I did it, that’s why you came here, isn’t it?”

“I realized in jail...I put it together. You could’ve come to me. I would’ve helped you.”

“You don’t get it, do you?”

“What?”

“I was never going to be with you.”

Tyler goes to say something and Emma puts up her hand. “Just stop. You too, El. I’m not going to confess. I am not stupid and weak like Simone or Fred. You don’t have any proof. And I’m not giving you any.”

“They’ll find it,” I say. “And everything you tried to hide, it’ll come out anyway.”

“So be it.” She lifts her chin and turns to the window, and she looks so alone in this moment, so far from me, even though she’s just across the room.

My best friend. My oldest friend.

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