Page 73 of Whispers of the Lake

“When was this?” I asked. “When did she send you the photo?”

“About two or three weeks ago, I think. I was so angry. I told him I’d take everything from him, including Emily, if he didn’t fix this. It just doesn’t make sense that he’d go and kill her. I thought he’d have her get an abortion or pay her to leave us alone. I’d even suggested that he do that.”

“But she didn’t,” I whispered.

Of course, she fucking didn’t. Because that’s Eve. She craved the upper hand. She liked being the one in control because, for the longest time, she was powerless. She probably didn’t even love Victor. Sheusedhim. Saw what he had with Gina and wanted it for herself. She blackmailed him, infiltrated his life. Found out where he lived. Now I could piece it together.

She knew Victor and his wife owned a house on Aquilla Lake. He probably dealt with her way beforehand and told her to terminate the pregnancy. She didn’t want their affair to end, but I bet Victor stopped responding to her because he wanted to fix his marriage.

She likely got upset and wanted to get back at him, so she thought of ways to bother him. She lucked out with finding the cottage and only booked it to be near him. She wanted to disturb his peace, prove that he couldn’t just use and discard her like trash. She was slowly causing him to unravel. Setting off his temper. Pushing him too far. Always pushing people too damn far.

Victor must’ve appeared at Twilight Oaks twice. The first time, when Lincoln left, was probably to serve her a warning. Mrs. Abbot said she saw Eve walking around their side of the lake. Victor must’ve noticed her too and that set off his alarm. Things were going good with his wife, but Eve was lurking around, ready to sabotage it.

But the second time Victor visited her was his last straw. She must’ve done something horrible—something toreallyset him off. So, he killed her. But it didn’t make sense that he’d left the body for the Reeds to find. Why hadn’t he covered his tracks?

Unless . . .

He saw Eve with Alex and Damian that night. That, or she told him all about it. She probably bragged and shoved it in his face. She probably never got rid of the baby. And if she was carrying Victor’s child, how did that make him feel, knowing she was intentionally ruining herself because of the seed he’d planted? How did it make him feel to know she was still carrying the baby at all?

Victor wanted to pin the blame on Alex and Damian. She’d had sex with them at the same time. Their DNA was likely all over her,insideher even. Even if the police found out the baby was Victor’s, he could’ve admitted to the affair happening, but said Eve was stalking him and his wife. He could’ve fabricated a whole story to protect himself and then pinned her death on the Reeds, and he would’ve gotten away with it . . . if I hadn’t intervened.

Knowing this, it was why Alex had taken her things, cleared the house, and got rid of the body. They had no clue who killed her but knew they’d be suspects if her body was taken in for forensics. They likely consulted with Sheriff Reed right away and told him everything, swore their innocence, and that was why he assisted them. That was why he had Eve’s car. The broken necklace in the fireplace I couldn’t fully understand, but the Reeds could’ve tried burning that along with her clothes to get rid of evidence.

Thinking about it now, Sheriff Reed knew how this would play out if anyone else other than him discovered Eve’s body. He knew a dead girl who’d slept with his nephews would jeopardize his reputation and status, so he helped them cover it up.

The only question remaining was what the hell had they done with her body?

CHAPTER FIFTY-TWO

Victor stormed down the stairs with a roll of duct tape in one hand and the gun in the other. I squirmed in my chair while Gina whimpered, watching as he marched my way while pulling the tape off the roll.

“You killed Eve because she wouldn’t get rid of the baby,” I said as he stretched the tape.

“Stop talking.”

“She came here to get your attention, didn’t she?”

He stepped behind me. “She ruins lives.”

“So that meanskillher?” I asked, alarmed.

“I never meant to kill her, damn it!” he snapped. “She was yelling and hitting me. She ran out of the house bragging about how she was going to tell everyone I was the father of her baby. She was reckless and kept saying if she couldn’t be happy, neither could I. I tried being reasonable with that bitch. I triedso hard. I brought her back to that house to try and talk some sense into her. And she . . .” He paused, drawing in a ragged breath. “She said I was a shitty husband. A shitty dad. She said she was going to tell her followers and the whole world that I raped her and purposely got her pregnant. She was going to rant about our company and reach out to our partners. She said she’d make sure I never saw Emily again by the time she was done. I just wanted her to shut up so we could work out a solution, but she wouldn’t, so I grabbed her by the throat and—”

“You choked her to death,” I whispered.

He growled and brought the tape to my mouth, wrapping it twice to shut me up.

Then he huffed. “Like I told you, Eve ruins lives. She deserves what happened to her. You should know all about that. All she ever talked about was how she fucked your husband. How she betrayed you.” His mouth twitched to fight a smirk. “Makes no sense that you even came looking for her after what she put you through. I bet you’re glad she’s dead.”

My chest tightened at the vulgarity of his accusation. He was wrong. Even though Eve had hurt me, deceived me, made me feel lower than I’d ever felt in my life, I never wished death upon her. Had I wished for some sort of karma? Yes. But more like her falling in love and being betrayed too. Or having her life ruined so she could understand how it felt to hurt and to lose faith and confidence in yourself.

To stare in the mirror and wonder what was so wrong with her. To search for all her flaws while wondering what was so bad that the man of her dreams felt the need to sleep with herbestfucking friend. I wanted her to know what it felt like tonotbe enough for someone. That’s what I wanted to happen to Eve. Not death. But it seems she found that out with Victor. She wasn’t enough for him . . . and her anger about it got her killed.

Gina groaned as she clung to her leg. “Eddie, you need to stop this. You have to let us go,” she pleaded. “You can’t keep us down here forever. People will come looking.”

Victor walked around me, side-eyeing Gina. “Think about Emily and what will happen if she loses both of us. Let me go to her, Eddie. Please.” Gina tried standing, crying out in pain as she pressed a bloody hand to the wall.

Victor stepped in front of her and pushed her back down. “Emily will be just fine with me.” He faced me, pointing the gun my way. “I’ll make it look like a suicide with you. You were angry. Hurt about what Eve did. Wanted to find her but couldn’t so you killed yourself with your own gun. I’ll put your body in the woods, set it up just right.”

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