Page 78 of The Gallagher Place
The world fell silent, until the sudden sound of footsteps and heavy breathing echoed from behind her. She looked up to see Nate’s dark figure crossing the Flats, his head rising and falling as he approached her.
Marlowe had a small rock clutched in one hand. She didn’t know what she planned to do with it. Not that she was feeling up to any kind of physical altercation. Not after the previous day.
By the looks of him, Nate wasn’t prepared for a fight either. The purple half circles under his eyes and his rumpled appearance suggested he hadn’t gotten much sleep. Part of her, the part that could somehow dismiss the bones beside her, was glad to see him. She had missed him—and his composure, all his confidence—this past week.
When he reached the wall, his face was as rigid as the scattered stones.
“So, she was here.” Nate’s words fell heavy on Marlowe’s bent head.
“You knew.” Marlowe’s voice cracked. “You knew this whole time.”
“No, I didn’t.” Nate didn’t seem to care if she believed him or not. He seemed exhausted with it all. “Enzo never told me where he put her.”
“Why?” Marlowe dropped the rock. “Tell me why.”
“She said she was pregnant.”
“So youkilledher?” Marlowe would have lunged at Nate if the wall hadn’t been between them.
“I didn’t kill her,” Nate snapped. “I was a kid, I asked for help.”
“You toldEnzo—”
“I told Dad.”
Marlowe went still. She couldn’t picture it. She supposed everyone said that when someone they knew and loved committed a heinous act, but it was the truth.
At this point, she could imagine Nora and Nate in each other’s arms, up by that bonfire on Memorial Day. Nora creeping down the hall in the middle of the night to meet Nate in the spare room. Nora and Nate keeping their delicious secret until it turned too risky. Nate panicking.
But her father, a man of law and justice and logic, ending a teenage girl’s life—a girl he had watched grow up. The thought was more appalling, more unbelievable than the bones at her feet.
Marlowe glanced behind Nate’s shoulder, expecting her entire family to suddenly appear in a line. But the field behind Nate was empty.
“It’s just me,” Nate said. “I told them I needed to clear my head. Henry said you walked toward the Gallagher barn, so I followed you. I always knew you would figure it out one day.”
“Dad, he wouldn’t have.” Marlowe’s words came out in gasps. “It wasn’t her fault she was pregnant! She didn’t deserve to die for that!”
“She wasn’t an idiot, Marlowe!” He glared at her over the wall while white snow gathered on the top of his head. “She could’ve prevented it and she didn’t! She was manipulating us!”
“Youcould have prevented it!” Marlowe shrieked. “If it mattered that much to you. If you were smart!”
“I didn’tknow.”
Marlowe turned away in disgust. “Youknewyou were having sex with her, and if you were going to do it, you should have been responsible.”
Nate was silent. A look of bewilderment filled his eyes.
“I thought you realized.” Nate blinked. “It wasn’t me. Nora and I—no. Marlowe, she was sleeping with Henry.”
The bottom dropped out of Marlowe’s world. She collapsed against the wall.
“I don’t know anything.” Marlowe sobbed. “Please, Nate, tell me what happened.”
Nate stepped over the wall and stood before her. “Open your coat. I know you left your phone at the house, but I want to make sure you’re not recording.”
Marlowe’s jaw dropped. “I’m not.”
“You don’t know what those detectives put me through,” Nate said. “The things they said about you. They said you had already figured it out and that you told them everything. That you were helping them gather the evidence they needed, so I might as well confess.” Nate hung his head at the thought.
