Chapter 21

She stated plainly that the so-called confession had not been written or posted by Ethan.She had gotten into his account and faked it, and she had done it for Noah.She published her entire message history with Noah's publicity team. She hired an independent digital-forensics firm, which verified that the original piano video was authentic and had never been altered in any way.The internet went off like a bomb a second time.[Wait, so the boy in the video really was Ethan Shaw? Not Noah?][Told you--let the bullet fly a while. It flipped again.][Hold on. Isn't this Vivian Sullivan the "Forensic Goddess" from that TV program? I used to ship her and her husband! Why would she destroy him for his brother?][Are you serious right now? It's two brothers and one woman. It's the oldest, ugliest story there is.][I heard the real version. Ethan Shaw's throat got cut because he took a blade for her. She married him to pay off the debt, and the man she actually wanted was Noah.][Is

Chapter 22

"What is it, Professor?" One of the detectives had caught the change in her.Vivian didn't say. Her face had gone hard."There's something I need to confirm."That evening she met Noah at a French restaurant.Candlelight moved between them. He was as handsome as ever, and the smile he was wearing didn't fit."Vivian, do you want to explain something to me?"His voice was cold."Why did you go back online and reverse it? Do you understand what you've done? Curtis has revoked my degree. The orchestra has terminated my contract."Days ago, her forged statement in Ethan's name had turned the whole story around and saved Noah's position and his credentials.Now she'd turned it around again, laid the evidence out piece by piece, and destroyed everything he had built on his brother's name.He was expelled. His degree was gone. The Symphony was done with him. His reputation was finished.Online he had nowhere to stand.And once the police announced that Ethan Shaw had been killed b

Chapter 23

Everything went out of Noah's face at once.Vivian's eyes were ice, and they went through whatever he had left."Noah. You still have his phone. Why? What were you going to do with it?"He panicked.He knew there was nothing left to say. The proof was sitting in his bag.He broke down sobbing, hoarse, trying desperately to talk his way out of it."Vivian, I swear I didn't mean for any of this--"The tears were running down his face and his voice shook."It was Vance. He killed my brother. And afterward he came and threatened me and left me the phone. I was terrified. I didn't dare say anything, because if I opened my mouth he'd kill me too."I only kept it because it was the last thing of my brother's I had. And when you started calling, I answered because I didn't want you worrying."He was screaming it now."I never wanted anything to happen to Ethan! He was my brother! Nobody in this world is grieving harder than I am!"The story had holes in it everywhere.The Vivian o

Chapter 24

The case closed.That night Tessa took Vivian out for a drink."Don't do this to yourself," she said, pushing a glass across the table with a sigh. "Everybody falls for at least one piece of garbage when they're young. Don't take it to heart."She watched her friend quietly, and there was nothing in her face but worry.She was genuinely afraid.More afraid, honestly, than she'd been the day they confirmed Ethan was dead.Because she knew exactly what Vivian's marriage had been. Gratitude at the start, and duty after that.Noah was different. Noah was the thing she'd burned for from girlhood into her thirties.And now the man she'd wanted all that time turned out to be vicious, and a liar, and capable of talking someone else into murder for him.Nobody takes a blow like that standing up.But to Tessa's surprise, Vivian didn't seem shaken at all.She just said, evenly, "It doesn't matter. He'll answer to the law."Tessa stared at her.She couldn't help asking. "You're... not

Chapter 25

Because she loved him, she hadn't been able to accept that he was dead, and she'd lied to herself over and over to keep him alive.Because she loved him, Noah's true face hadn't touched her at all. All she felt was that Ethan was gone.Or maybe it started earlier than that.Because she'd already loved him, she'd wanted him on the nights she reached for him.Because she'd already loved him, some part of her got frightened and made her live at the university and work herself numb.And every time she was truly at the end of herself, she'd come back to that apartment anyway, because she needed to look at him one more time.Vivian finally understood.She'd fallen for her husband a long time ago, and she'd refused to admit it.She wouldn't admit that her heart had changed. She wouldn't admit that six years of ordinary days had done what she'd sworn they couldn't. So she made herself kinder to Noah, and she made herself stay away from home.And that--her own certainty about herself--

Chapter 26

"Vivian!"Detective Harris was shouting, staring at her, and in that second he finally understood.She had looked like she was cooperating. She had said it was about catching the man.She had decided a long time ago that she was going to do it herself.But Vance wasn't slow either. The instant she moved, so did the knife in his hand.It opened her throat.They went down together."Get a medic!""Ambulance, now!"People were running and shouting all around her.Vivian couldn't hear any of it.She lay where she'd fallen, suffocating, feeling the blood go out of her.For a moment nothing was quite real.She'd been a forensic pathologist for years. She'd handled more bodies than she could count and seen every way a person can end.And here, at last, was her own.She wasn't frightened. She wasn't panicking.What she felt was relief.She closed her eyes.Ethan.I've avenged you. Every person who did this to you has paid for it.Noah. This man.And me.Because Vivian had