“She’d been acting out for a while,” he says, “growing more disrespectful. We had a hunch she was hanging around this man as a way to hurt her mother.” When I stay silent, Daniel tells me, “Rebecca dated him years ago, and it affected me as well with him on the force. Christ, I worried he was taking advantage of her, but she was eighteen, so my hands were tied. Rebecca tried to talk to Remi, warn her away from him. But Remi wouldn’t hear it.”

I blink at him, hearing him but struggling to process more and more. “She was seeing her mom’s ex and ran off with him?”

They were together—that’s the part tripping me up. She listened to me about my dad and his secrets and cheating and betrayal. Now, I’m supposed to believe she was with another guy the entire time. Now she’s just done with me, no word or warning.

He nods, sticking his hands in his pockets. “After she found out about Rebecca, she bolted, and no one’s seen either of them since.” He shakes his head again with a shrug. “Her mother passed away, and the first thing Remi did was skip town with her ex. She’d been more secretive and lying all the time. But I never thought she was capable of such a selfish act. To not even grieve or attend the funeral?” His eyes close as he pauses. “She left all of us behind to worry, too.”

A numbness that started in my chest reverses. The concern in his tone sounds manipulated, and then his eyes open, locking on me the second his lids clear. Like he’s gauging my reaction.

Him being a piece of shit wasn’t the only thing Remi told me about him.

“Everyone treats him like a king when his crown’s made of deceit.”

“And you know they’re together?” I ask, studying him more closely.

“Roman called in his resignation the same day. No one’s seen him come or go from his house, windows always dark. I worried he might have abducted her,” Daniel adds, “but her friend, Sage, confirmed they’d been sneaking around.”

I try to match my Remi and the one he’s describing. Saint or Sinner. Not using her actual last name on an app means nothing in the grand scheme. Plenty of reasons exist for it.

But I saw Roman myself—heard her say his name and hurry off to talk to him. Her best friend would know better what was happening, being here in the flesh, than I ever could through a screen and not really seeing a damn thing.

It still feels like I’m missing something, though. I get cutting me off if she ran off with another guy—if she would really hurt me in the worst possible way. But why would she abandon Sage?