Sylvie shook her head and looked away, her breath faltering as it left her body. Lila watched as guilt wrapped its cold fingers around Sylvie’s throat.

“Gavin told me it was you.”

Sylvie’s breath caught in her chest.

It was true that Gavin had confessed that information on the bridge, but not so bluntly. You wouldn’t know the truth if it walked up and spat in your face. In the heat of the moment, Lila had dismissed the odd phrasing as the ravings of a psychopath, but his words hadn’t been random. When she saw Sylvie’s phone number on the screen of her phone, Lila understood.

“Why, Sylvie?” Lila whispered. “Why would you help him rape me?”

Sylvie’s eyes shot up to Lila. “I didn’t. I swear. It wasn’t supposed to happen that way. We were only gonna take a picture. That’s all. I didn’t know he’d go back. I swear to God—”

“Take a picture? Why would you do that?”

Tears began to stream down Sylvie’s cheeks. She pulled her thighs up to her chest and wiped her face on the knees of her jeans. “You could’ve had anyone. John was all I had, and you took him.”

“Gavin raped me!” Lila almost snarled as her emotions got the better of her. “Do you have any idea how that…? I tried to kill myself, Sylvie. I almost died because of that night.”

“I was a stupid kid—and I was hurt. I just wanted to embarrass you. I wanted to hurt you the way you hurt me. Gavin was just supposed to take a picture, that’s all. He wasn’t supposed to—”

“But he did. And you helped him.”

“I didn’t know. I swear. When I found out…I’m sorry. If I could take it all back, I would.”

“And all these years, you let me suffer.”

“But you got better.” Sylvie looked at Lila with something hopeful in her eyes. “You went to college and law school. You got over it.”

“You never get over something like that. You have no idea what you’ve done, do you?”

“I didn’t know what to do. He was my cousin.”

“He was evil—a monster—and you helped to create him.”

“I hadn’t spoken to him since that night. I swear. I wanted nothing to do with him.”

Lila leaned back in her chair to watch Sylvie’s reaction, and said, “Sylvie Jacqueline Dubois. Did he call you Jack because he couldn’t say Sylvie—because of his lisp?”

Sylvie didn’t answer, but looked at Lila as though Lila now aimed a gun at her heart.

Lila reached into her jacket pocket and handed Sylvie the printout of the text messages. When she saw them, Sylvie began hyperventilating. “I didn’t.” She looked at Lila, pleading. “He wanted me to, but I didn’t. I couldn’t. I swear.”

“What happened to you, Sylvie?”

“No! Listen! I got those texts and the letters, but I didn’t do anything. I would rather go to jail for what I did to you than to…Please, you gotta believe me. I didn’t—I wouldn’t.”