Tom tried not to let his surprise show on his face on hearing her sudden confession. She killed soone? Bryan had said Sonia's half-brother had committed suicide because of Lucy, he hadn't ntioned anything about Lucy murdering anyone, so what was she talking about? On second thought he realized that it was possible for Sonia to withhold such information from Bryan. There was no way she could have possibly told Bryan that her best friend had murdered her half-brother. It wouldn't make sense. Or perhaps it was just her guilt speaking? That was most likely as he couldn't imagine a person like Lucy hurting a fly.
Lucy looked at Tom's face, but she couldn't tell what he was thinking as his expression was blank, so she sighed, "You don't believe , do you?" She asked, looking at Tom.
"I can't exactly tell whether I believe you or not when I don't know the details," Tom explained, and Lucy's lips twitched in a crooked smile as she gave him a small nod, and then picked up the glass of wine.
She took a long sip from the glass, and Tom did not attempt to stop her. He was glad that he was her boss and could find a way to get her to take the day off.
Lucy sighed as she returned the glass to the table and looked at Tom. She took in a deep breath and let the air out through her lips, "His na was Jamie... And he was Sonia's half-brother," Lucy said, and tears gathered in her eyes once again as though she was struggling with the mory.
"Older or younger?" Tom asked curiously, trying to ease her into the subject gradually, while also wanting to find out if it was a case of re childish infatuation that wasn't handled properly or sothing more serious than that.
"Older. He was a college student, while I and Sonia were both in grade twelve," Lucy explained making Tom's brow crease in a frown.
"Older?" That ant it was more serious than he had thought.
"Yeah. Sonia's mother had Jamie for her high school sweetheart during their first year in college. I don't know the exact details of all that happened, but she later got married to Sonia's dad, and when he died so years later, she got back with Jamie's dad," Lucy explained, and Tom gave her a nod.
"Sonia must have been very close to him then," Tom guessed, since he assud Sonia had grown up under the sa roof as Jamie, and he needed to understand how Sonia could have remained friends without soone who had caused her brother's death.
"On the contrary, they didn't get along so well. Sohow Jamie seed to believe that he was denied of his mother's love and affection in the early years of his life because she got married to Sonia's father, so as a result he always tried to make things difficult for Sonia," Lucy explained without looking at Tom.
She still rembered how she and Sonia used to tiptoe around the house when they were younger, and how they both preferred to stay back at her house instead of Sonia's house because they didn't want to run into either Jamie or his father who always glared at them like their re presence around the house was a nuisance.
"Do you still want to talk about what happened?" Tom asked when she remained silent for a while just staring ahead of her like she was lost in her thoughts. Although he didn't want to pressure her to share her story with him, he was itching to hear what she had to say.
Lucy who had a distant look in her eyes as she tried to gather her thoughts, turned to look at Tom. No matter how much she thought about all that happened that day, she couldn't co up with a different way that she could have handled things. Bracing herself, she gave him a nod, "I don't even know what to say or where to start from," Lucy said with a weary sigh, "I don't know when or how it started, but sohow Jamie had so sort of twisted feelings for ," Lucy said as she looked away from him once again.
"Twisted feelings?" Tom asked, and Lucy gave him a nod.
"Very twisted. Although he never talked to when I was around the house, little did I know that he was always watching . He was always taking photos of without my knowledge... Can you believe that he even had a cara set up in Sonia's bedroom?" Lucy rubbed her arms as a shudder passed through her at the thought of it.
A stalker? This wasn't good, "Didn't you say he was a college student?" Tom cut in.
"He was. He claid that he didn't want to be separated from his parents, so he chose a school close to the house where he could go to school from ho," Lucy explained.
"He was always locked up in his bedroom, playing gas or working with his system when he wasn't attending classes in school. Little did we know that he was actually busy monitoring and listening to my conversations with Sonia. In the past, I used to wonder why most of the guys who asked out on a date both in school and around the neighborhood kept their distance from after confessing their feelings to . I had no idea that after eavesdropping on my conversations with Sonia during our sleepovers, he would find the guys and harass them. Asking them to stay away from his girlfriend," Lucy said, and then paused as she reached out to take the wineglass again, but Tom picked it and handed it to her.
"That must have been very creepy," Tom said as he watched her drink from the wineglass.
"Creepy is an understatent," Lucy said as she tried to return the glass but once again Tom took it from her and dropped it on the table. Having nothing to do with her hands now, Lucy rubbed her palms together as she let out a sigh.
"The most spine-chilling thing about it all was the fact that he never acted like he cared about . Not even for one mont did he ever give the impression that he cared about . The couple of tis I encountered him in the house, he would look at blankly and just walk past . He barely even responded to my greetings," Lucy said with a slight frown as she thought about it.
"And none of those guys ever told you that they were being threatened by him?" Tom asked, and she shook her head.
"None of them stood still long enough to talk to after he threatened them."
"So how did you find out he was behind it?" Tom asked, looking at her curiously.
Lucy sighed and reached out to tuck her hair behind both ears, "Well, there was this guy I liked, and I told Sonia about him as usual. So whenever I would visit, we would spend the night talking about him and giggling. And then one Friday afternoon, just before the close of school, I received a note from him, asking to be his prom date. I was crazy with excitent that day, but I didn't give him a response imdiately as I was trying to be careful, considering my past with the other guys who had previously asked out but suddenly started avoiding afterward," she paused to catch her breath.
Tom said nothing as he watched her while waiting for her to go ahead with the story.
"After deliberating over it during the weekend, I walked up to him on Monday after classes to give him my response, but he seed to be avoiding too. At that point, I couldn't take it anymore, so I demanded that he tell what was going on. That was when he told that my boyfriend had warned him off . He apologized for asking to be his prom date when I was in a relationship," Lucy said, sounding like she was still surprised by his apology.
"You can't imagine how surprised I was to hear that. I told him I didn't have a boyfriend, but he wouldn't believe no matter what I said. And then he unbuttoned his shirt and showed the bruise on the side of his stomach where Jamie had hit him. I couldn't believe him. None of that made any sense to , so I went around asking all the other guys I could find why they lost interest in , and each of them told how my boyfriend had harassed them. Not only was I shocked, but I was also beyond pissed. I couldn't understand why Jamie who never bothered to talk to would go around scaring all the guys off ," Lucy poured out her story, hardly pausing for breath.
"What about your twin brother? I noticed that you haven't ntioned him in all this," Tom cut, wanting to interrupt her so she would catch her breath.
"His girlfriend was always hovering around him, and she was always in the house with him, as she didn't want to be closer to my brother than she was. So I was closer to Sonia at the ti all of this was happening," Lucy explained, and Tom gave her a nod.
"Go on," he urged her.
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