Page 69 of Sinner
“I couldn’t find anything linking Beck with his father’s plans,” Nix revealed. “Aside from that one chat where he accuses Dew of getting Hendrix involved, there’s nothing. But he could have easily planted that email on Dew’s computer.”
“He sounded genuinely concerned over Dew’s actions,” Yejun disagreed. “I’m not saying he’s a good guy, but…”
“He was playing with him,” Lake reminded. “How can we be certain any of this is real? For all we know, he was acting to trick Dew.”
“Trick him into what? The guy was already head over heels for him. Hell, he fucking jumped off a rooftop to make a point.” Yejun caught himself too late and gave Nix an apologetic glance. “Sorry. That was crass of me.”
“No, you’re right.” As much as Nix wanted to be correct, wanted to connect Beck to the poison and all of their problems, it didn’t seem like Beck had any clue that the drug being slipped to West had been more than a sedative. “Everyone was used by someone in this situation, but I don’t think it was Beck.”
“That settles it. Hendrix hid behind students,” Lake growled. “Coward.”
“You think that’s when the poison was introduced?” West pursed his lips. “Makes sense. Hendrix wouldn’t have told Beck what he was up to, given their rocky relationship, but we know Dew tattled about something to try and get Beck to spend less time with me.”
“Juri sometimes got the sedatives from Dew,” Yejun recalled reading in a couple of the logs. “If Dew started getting them from Hendrix…It could have been anything.”
“Dew wouldn’t have cared either,” Nix surmised. “He didn’t care about hurting anyone, so long as he got to be with Beck.” He ran a hand through his hair. “A lot of this we’d already figured out, but…It’s different, somehow.”
“It’s different seeing it with our own eyes,” Lake said, resting a hand on Nix’s back. “How are you?”
“It’s hard reading through Branwen’s chats with him. It’s like she was both the person I remember and the new version I’ve just discovered, all wrapped in one. Reading how Juri strung her along, fully knowing how she felt…” His hands tightened into fists, but he didn’t bother finishing that sentence.
“So, let’s just spell this out so we’re all clear,” Yejun suggested. “Beck starts fooling around with Dew because he’s lonely and wants West bad. Dew develops a creepy attachment to him. Juri either asks for or is randomly gifted the Serendipity account—which Beck had given to Dew first—where he connects with Branwen.”
“Juri confides in Dew that he and Branwen are getting close to Yejun in order to find evidence to use against us,” West picked up the timeline. "Branwen accidentally catches the two of them fornicating in the library.”
“Grady saw them once as well,” Nix added.
“Wild. It doesn’t seem like they ever caught him.”
“Out of jealousy over the time Beck’s been spending with West, Dew gets Hendrix involved. This must be when the poison is introduced to the equation,” Lake said.
“I’m pretty sure Juri was trying to tell me he and Branwen had nothing to do with that at the end,” Nix told them. Juri had struggled to speak, but he’d put in the effort to try to clear his name.
And Branwen’s.
That was something, wasn’t it?
Maybe Nix was willing to settle for any scrap that made Juri out to have even a shred of decency, but he had to find comfort where he could, and knowing that Juri had used his last breaths in an attempt to also make it up to Branwen? Since that was all he was going to be getting in this lifetime, Nix would have to be satisfied.
“If these really are all the chat logs,” West motioned to the screens where the script was still up, “then there’s never any mention of poison between Juri and Branwen, or Beck and Dew. I have to run through them to be sure none of them were altered in any way, but I don’t think they were.”
“Juri wouldn’t have told her,” Yejun stated, but then sighed, “but you’re right. I don’t think they knew. Shit.” He dropped his head into his hands. “I was so angry…”
“You couldn’t have known,” Lake came to his defense. “Given the information you had at the time, it was only logical to assume she’d done it on purpose.”
“She told me she hadn’t. Swore on her life that she’d had no idea.”
“But she still wouldn’t turn on Juri,” West pointed out. “If she had, you could have brought him in for questioning sooner, and we could have figured this out months ago. No one would have to die.” He turned to Nix, who’d gone quiet. “Don’t get me wrong. I’m not blaming her.”
“I know.” Nix could see where they were all coming from. Even his cousin. “She thought Juri loved her, even if they weren’t openly together. I bet she thought there’d been a mistake, and if she stalled, you guys would find proof of that and let her go. If she named Juri, he’d be dragged into it, might never forgive her….Might get hurt. Especially after hearing what you did to Rase.”
“I would have broken every single bone in Juri’s body,” Yejun confirmed, though he didn’t sound pleased with himself. “As shitty as it is, she did the right thing.”
“She’s dead now because of it. I just don’t understand why he ghosted her after. You let her go. Was he afraid you were still monitoring her or something?”
“Juri wasn’t here for that,” Yejun explained. “There was a family emergency, something about his brother. I don’t really know all the details. But he took off before the semester ended, like the day after we caught Branwen. I didn’t see him around again until maybe midsummer.”
“That’s when he found out he was related to Lake.” Nix recalled Juri telling him about the sudden issue with his brother and how that event led to him having to take a DNA test. “He hated you guys, and then almost got West killed without meaning to. It must have been shocking to discover that he was actually Lake’s brother.”
