Sweet Hatred Chapter 396: "Forever"

The police ca for on Sunday.

Two detectives, a man and a woman, both wearing expressions I recognized from the facility. Neutral. Professional. Suspicious.

"Sarah Brown? We need to ask you so questions about Cain Morrison."

"Of course. Anything I can do to help."

They took to a small room on campus. Not the police station, not yet. Just sowhere private where they could talk without an audience.

"You were dating Cain," the female detective said. Not a question.

"Yes."

"When did you last see him?"

"Monday. We got coffee after class."

A lie. But a believable one.

"And Thursday night? Where were you Thursday night?"

"In my room. Studying. My roommate transferred schools, so I was alone."

Another lie.

"Anyone who can verify that?"

"No. Like I said, I was alone."

They exchanged a look.

"We found so things on Cain’s computer," the male detective said slowly. "ssages. Between him and his friends. About you. And about your friend Aria."

I let my face crumple. Tears on cue, I’d practiced this for years. "I know. I found them last week. He was using . To get to her."

"That must have made you angry."

"It made sad. I thought he cared about ."

"Just sad? Not angry?"

I looked up at them with wet eyes. "I’m not an angry person, detective. I was hurt. But I’d never—" My voice broke. "I’d never hurt him. I loved him."

The female detective’s expression softened slightly. The male one stayed hard.

They asked more questions. About my relationship with Cain, my relationship with Aria, my whereabouts, my state of mind.

I answered every one perfectly. The right amount of emotion. The right amount of detail. Not too much, not too little.

I’d been preparing for this my whole life.

After two hours, they let go.

"Don’t leave town," the male detective said.

I nodded. "Of course."

I called my parents from my dorm room.

"I need you," I said when my father answered.

A long pause. Then: "What did you do, Sarah?"

I didn’t answer. I didn’t have to.

"We’ll be there tomorrow," he said, and hung up.

They arrived Monday morning with a team of lawyers I’d never t. Expensive suits, expensive briefcases, expensive smiles that didn’t reach their eyes.

My mother hugged briefly. "It’ll be okay," she whispered. But her eyes said sothing else: How could you be so stupid?

My father didn’t hug at all. Just looked at with that expression I’d seen before. Fear mixed with resignation. The look that said: Here we go again.

The lawyers went to work.

I don’t know all the details of what they did. I wasn’t supposed to. Plausible deniability, they called it.

But I heard things. Pieced things together.

The knife was never found. Sohow the search of my dorm turned up nothing.

Witnesses who’d seen that night suddenly weren’t sure. Maybe it was soone else. Hard to tell in the dark.

Security footage from the dorm building mysteriously corrupted. Technical glitch.

My alibi solidified. My parents swore I’d been with them Thursday night, family dinner, ca ho late. They had receipts from a restaurant, a credit card statent, everything lined up perfectly. There were no questions raised about why I ntioned studying in the first place.

Cain’s family was approached quietly. A settlent. Enough money to make the questions stop. To make them accept that whoever killed their son, it wasn’t .

And finally, evidence pointing elsewhere. A holess man who’d been seen near campus. Who had a history of violence. Who couldn’t account for his whereabouts Thursday night.

They arrested him three weeks later.

Case closed.

The detectives ca to see one more ti.

"You’re free to go," the female detective said. She didn’t look happy about it. "Your alibi checks out."

"Thank you," I said softly.

The male detective stared at . "If I find out you lied—"

"She didn’t lie," my father said coldly. He’d insisted on being present for this conversation.

"My daughter was with us that night. Are you calling a liar, detective?"

The detective’s jaw tightened. But he didn’t push. My father was a senior partner at one of the largest law firms in the state.

You didn’t call people like him liars unless you had ironclad proof.

They left.

My father turned to . "Don’t ever ask us to do this again."

"I won’t," I said.

He studied my face for a long mont. "Do you feel anything, Sarah? Anything at all?"

I thought about it. Really thought about it.

"No," I said honestly.

He closed his eyes. When he opened them again, sothing had shifted. A door closing. The sa one that had closed inside .

"Then learn to be more careful."

He left.

My mother lingered. "Sarah—"

"I didn’t kill him," I said. The lie ca easily now. So easily I almost believed it.

She looked at with sothing that might have been pity. Or grief. "I know," she said softly, even though we both knew she didn’t believe . "I know, sweetheart."

Then she left too.

Aria barely left my side the whole ti.

She’d show up at my dorm with food I didn’t ask for, stay with through classes, text constantly to make sure I was okay. The attention was suffocating in the best way.

"You don’t have to do this," I told her one night. We were in my room, her on my bed doing howork while I pretended to study.

"Yes, I do." She looked up at , eyes fierce.

"You just lost your boyfriend, Sarah. In the most horrible way possible. And then the police treated you like a suspect. You shouldn’t have to go through this alone."

"You believe , right? That I didn’t—"

"Of course I believe you." She said it without hesitation, without doubt. "I know you, Sarah. You couldn’t hurt anyone."

If only she knew.

"Everyone else keeps looking at weird," I said quietly. "Like they think I did it."

"Fuck them." Aria’s jaw set in that stubborn way I’d co to recognize. "They don’t know you. They don’t matter."

"You matter."

Her expression softened. "You matter to too. You’re my best friend. My person. And I’m not going anywhere, okay? No matter what anyone says or thinks."

Sothing warm unfurled in my chest. Not guilt. Not remorse. Sothing else entirely.

Satisfaction.

Cain had tried to use to get to her. Had reduced to nothing, made a tool, a stepping stone to what he actually wanted.

And now he was nothing. Scattered into pieces. Erased.

And Aria was here. With . Choosing . Protecting from the whispers and the suspicious looks.

Exactly where she belonged.

When news about the ’culprit’ spread,

Aria called imdiately. "Did you hear? They got him. The guy who killed Cain."

"Really?" I made my voice breathy. Relieved.

"Yeah. So holess guy. He’s been arrested for assault before. They found evidence linking him to the scene." She paused. "Sarah, it’s over. You can stop looking over your shoulder now."

"I don’t know if I’ll ever feel safe again," I said softly.

"I know. But I’m here. I’ll always be here. You know that, right?"

"I know."

"I love you, Sarah. You’re like my sister. My family. I need you to know that no matter what happens, no matter who cos into our lives or leaves, you and ? We’re forever."

I closed my eyes. Let those words sink in. Settle into my bones.

"I love you too," I said. "Forever."

And I ant it. In my own way. In the only way I knew how.

She just didn’t understand yet what that kind of love required. What I was willing to do to keep her. To keep us.

But she would.

Eventually, she would.