Page 110 of Kill Your Darlings

It probablyhadbeen difficult and lonely and terrifying.His achievements were all the more impressive because of the obstacles.But he’d thrown those obstacles in his own path, and I found myself unmoved.

“Did you kill Troy Colby?”

Milo recoiled.“Me?Commit murder?YouknowDom was an accident.You of all people know that.”

“Self-defense, right?”

“Right!I accidentally killed himdefendingmyself.How can you even ask me that?”

I said, “It turns out I didn’t know you as well as I thought I did.Were you working with Colby?Were you behind that fucking fake manuscript?Did you get your brother to slash my tire?”

“Slash your— What are you eventalkingabout?”He seemed legitimately dumbfounded.“Of course not!Are you crazy?You think I’d have anything to do with blackmailing you?That I’d be in cahoots with someone like Colby?How would that even happen?I never met the guy till he introduced himself.I didn’t know aboutanyof this at first.”

My skepticism must have shown.

He protested, “I was just attending a conference.I’d no idea you’d even be here when I signed up.You think I’d have taken the chance of running into you?This wasallJudge Baldwin.He’s on this crazyVengeance is Mine!trip.”

“Why would he come after me?How would he have known I had any involvement?How wouldanyone?”

Milo got a very weird look on his face.He stopped blustering and said quietly, “He has my journal.”

“He… What journal?”

“I kept a journal.I always kept a journal.Dom got hold of it.”

“How would Dom—?”I stopped.

How do you think Dominic knew to find Milo in the cemetery that night?

“You and Dom were…together?”

“Yes.Sometimes.It wasn’t… It wasn’t a normal, healthy relationship.He was a fucking trainwreck.He hated being queer.He hated me because he wanted me.And I hated me, too, because I wanted him.Even though I knew he was a lost cause.He was abastard.”

Milo watched me and when I didn’t say anything—because I literally could not find the words—he threw his head back and yelled, “What do you want from me?”

“The truth would have been nice.”

“Listen, Keiran, youhadthe truth.Ididcare for you.What we had was sweet.It was wonderful compared to the catastrophe of being with Dom.You were a-a breath of fresh air in my life.I regret what happened.I wish I’d never called you that night.And I wish even more that I had not asked Dom to come to St.Bibiana’s.He was supposed to bring my journal, which he’d stolen a week earlier.Stole it from mybedroomwhen he broke into our house because that’s who he was.”

I said scornfully, “You didn’t ask him to come there to get back your diary.”

Milo sighed.“No.That wasn’t why I asked him to come there.And that wasn’t why he came.”

“Wasanyof what you told me true?”

Of all the times I’d imagined having this conversation—well, I’d never imagined this conversation.Never imagined anything like it.

“It wasalltrue,” Milo insisted.“He did try to strangle me.He was angry after we fucked.He was always angry.That night I was angry, too.I fought back.”He drew a hard breath.“Anyway.Judge Baldwin found the journal.He had it for years.Foryears.He knew everything for years.But he did nothing with it.Because he knew his son was a sick fuck and it was always going to end badly.”

Milo’s face worked.“But now, he’s sick.He’s dying.And suddenly, out of the blue, he wants…justice.For a goddamned ghost.”

“Why’s he dragging me into it?”

“You’re in the journal.He could put two and two together.Who else would have helped me that night?”

Yeah.Who else?

Milo added, “Plus, he thinks I’m dead.”

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