Page 149 of Tear Me Apart
“Wait.”
Predictable. So predictable, Zack Armstrong. Such easy prey.
“Sit down. I want to hear it. I want to hear it all.”
“No cops, no lawyers. Just us.”
“Just us.”
She leans closer to the Plexiglas. “Just us, Zack. This is going to be our little secret. No pillow talk with Juliet, no late-night confessions to Mindy. I tell you exactly what happened, and you do me a favor. Deal?”
Zack stares at her, calculating the cost.
“Deal.”
“I swore to Vivian I wouldn’t ever tell you this. But considering the circumstances...I suppose she might forgive me now.”
“Are you playing a trick? Trying to get off? Is this some sort of technicality, some plan by your lawyers to prove how insane you really are? If you tell me the truth...”
“I will. I won’t ever say this outside of this room. I will never repeat it, do you hear me? It’s not going to come up at sentencing. I’m willing to pay the price for my actions. This is just for us, to cement the strange tie we’ve always had.”
“How do you know they aren’t listening?”
She leans back, looking around. She has considered this. Are there microphones in the telephones? It’s possible. She will have to be extra careful.
“They aren’t,” Zack says quickly as if he’s afraid he’s chased her away. “I asked. There’s no way for them to record these conversations.”
She lets her shoulders relax. “Good. Thank you for checking. You always were a smart one.”
“Would you stop playing with me and tell me, for God’s sake?”
“All right. Vivian asked me to kill her.”
“Bullshit. Give me a break.”
He stands, and she shouts into the phone, “I swear it. And I have proof.”
“What do you mean, you have proof?”
“She wrote you a letter explaining everything.”
“I know all about the letters.”
“Not this one. No one’s ever seen it. Even me.”
“And you’ve been keeping it safe all this time?”
“Yes, I have. Along with copies of our conversations. In case this ever happened—” she waves vaguely at the room around her “—I needed something to help mitigate the circumstances.”
“I don’t know what to believe anymore, Lauren.”
“Read the letters. You’ll understand everything. I promise.”
“I want to hear it from you.”
She looks at the ground coyly, and then she begins to talk.
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