Don’t Let Me Break by Linda Verji
CHAPTER 34
Marley had missed the shot, and Sebastian was extremely happy about that. It meant that once she woke up, she wouldn’t be saddled with the guilt of having killed Zion.
The problem now was; when would she wake up?
Concern written all over her features, Kenny asked, “She’s going to wake up soon, right?”
“I’m sorry.” The doctor’s worried gaze skirted to Marley. “But I can’t make any promises. We’ll just have to wait and see.”
The injuries Marley had sustained from the fracas with Zion had almost healed. However, she was still lying unconscious in a hospital bed, and had been doing so for six days.
“Have you figured out what the problem is?” Sebastian asked.
Ever since Marley had been admitted, Kenny and Sebastian had been taking turns keeping Marley company in the hospital. Kenny came in the mornings after work and stayed with her during the day. Sebastian dropped by every evening after work. Today was a Sunday, so they were both around.
“We’ve done all the usual tests but found no intracranial or extracranial damage,” the doctor revealed. “So it has to be something psychiatric.”
Kenny asked, “So this could be something to do with her DID?”
“It could be,” the doctor admitted. “But only a psychiatric evaluation can give us a certain answer. We’ve already requested help from our Psychiatry department, but they’ll need her therapist’s contacts.”
“Okay.” Kenny nodded. “Who do I give it to?”
While Kenny and the doctor sorted out the issue, Sebastian moved his chair closer to the bed so he could touch Marley’s face. Using his thumb, he brushed the chocolate curve of her forehead.
Marley looked so peaceful. There were no furrows on her brow. Long eyelashes rested calmly on her upper cheeks, and her delicate, distinct features were relaxed. Anyone would think that she was asleep. But she wasn’t… not really. And it hurt Sebastian to see her this way.
From everything Kenny had told him, there was every chance that Marley was lost in her head. Usually, when that happened, Hazel took over. Sebastian would’ve given anything for that to happen this time too. He’d take Hazel any day over this dreadful unresponsiveness and the crippling worry that came with wondering if Marley would even wake up.
Wake up, baby, he pleaded mentally while stroking Marley’s forehead. Wake up.
“I can’t stand her being like this. I need her to wake up, and all they’re doing is telling us to wait,” Kenny complained as she came up behind him. “Should we get a second opinion?”
“I’m not sure.” Sebastian turned to meet her gaze.
There were no words to describe how grateful he was that Kenny had chosen to include him in Marley’s treatment. It was almost as if she’d already accepted him into the family.
He added, “This is the best hospital in the city and they have the best doctors, so we’re already getting the best diagnosis. Why don’t we wait a day or two more? If she’s not up by Wednesday, we can get someone else to have a look.”
“Okay,” Kenny agreed. Her mouth parted as if she wanted to say something more, but before she could get a word out, there was a knock on the door.
A beat later, the door opened and Officer Brown walked in. Both Kenny and Sebastian greeted him with a nod.
“How’s she doing?” The detective walked over to the other side of the bed to look at Marley. “The same?”
Kenny nodded. “The same.”
“That’s a pity.” Brown sighed. “We needed to get her side of what happened up on that roof before we go full throttle with the case.”
“What did Zion say happened?” Sebastian asked.
“All he said was that he needed to kill her but she refused to die,” the detective revealed. “But we can guess most of what happened. From the evidence at the scene, we know that he was trying to make Marley write a suicide note. He planned to murder her then make it look like a suicide. We tried to get more from Zion but he’s not talking.”
“What?” Sebastian’s anger immediately flared. “He lawyered up?”
“He did,” Brown admitted. “But there seems to be a little more going on. He seems to have become mute. No one can get him to speak, and he is constantly out of it. It could be genuine shock, or maybe he and his lawyer are putting on a show so they can justify an insanity defense.”
“That bastard!” Kenny spat out. “After everything he’s done, he’s now pretending to be crazy? The nerve! He nearly killed my sister. If he gets off on insanity, I swear I’ll-”
“What Kenny is saying is-” Sebastian cut her off before she could say something incriminating in front of a cop. “- Do you guys know anything more?”
“There’s overwhelming circumstantial evidence tying him to Marley’s attack in the parking lot and your poisoning, so his lawyer didn’t kick up a fuss when we charged him for those offenses,” Brown said. “But they claimed that they knew nothing about Leslie’s Turner’s death. However, we know that’s a lie.”
“How do you know?” Kenny asked.
“Because the same gun Marley shot him with is the gun that shot Leslie,” the detective revealed. “His lawyer tried to make it seem like the gun was Marley’s-”
“That doesn’t make sense.” Sebastian hypothesized, “If that gun was used to kill Leslie, then it couldn’t have been Marley’s because she was me with that night.”
“Exactly!” Brown agreed. “But the lawyer was trying to spin a story that Marley hired someone and lent him the gun.”
“Bastard!” Kenny spat out. “That story is garbage.”
“You’re right. It’s garbage.” Brown smiled. “We’ve traced the seller, and he says that he sold it to Zion a day before Leslie’s death. We’re now reasonably sure that he killed Leslie.”
“But why?” Sebastian frowned. “Why would Zion kill Leslie? And why would he try to kill Marley?”
“Yeah,” Kenny chimed in. “He and Marley were friends. Why would he try to come after her?”
“That’s where things get a little complicated,” Brown admitted. “Leslie’s acquaintances say that for the last couple of weeks, she’s been bragging about knowing people who’d pay her to keep their secrets. Marley was one of these people, and when her blackmail fell through, Leslie was pissed. But soon, she got over it then said that it was okay because she still had another line for free money. We didn’t know what this meant until after Zion was arrested. A friend of Leslie’s came forward and told us that she’d used his phone to call Zion on the day she died, and they set up a meeting.”
Sebastian scowled. “So what you’re saying is that Leslie was blackmailing Zion too? What for?”
“We don’t have all the details yet, but,” Brown said, “we have spoken to his mother and we have an idea about what Leslie had on them.”
Brown went on to explain that Zion’s mother and Gary Carter had been having an affair for several years before his death. Marley’s mother knew all about the affair, but had never talked. In prison, Cynthia had become very good friends with her longtime cellmate. She’d confided in this cellmate about a lot of things in her past life thinking that the cellmate could be trusted to keep a secret.
The cellmate couldn’t be trusted.
After Cynthia died, this cellmate got a new cellmate… Leslie. They got close and she eventually shared with Leslie what she knew. Leslie was an entrepreneur. Rather than tell everyone what she knew, she’d kept Cynthia’s secrets in her pocket and waited until she was out to cash them in for an easy payday. Her first stop was Zion’s mother. She wanted money in return for not ruining Zion’s mother’s reputation. Unfortunately, that didn’t pan out because Zion’s mother was completely broke.
Since she couldn’t squeeze water out of a rock, Leslie moved on. Zion’s mother breathed in relief, thinking that she was gone. Zion’s mother never thought Leslie would change her target to Zion.
Kenny scoffed. “Why am I not surprised that that rat had an affair?”
Brown’s eyebrows shot up. “Rat?”
“Yes, that rat, Gary,” Kenny reiterated with a scowl. “So is Zion like our half-sibling or something?”
“No.” Brown shook his head. “You two aren’t related. His mother hooked up with your dad when he was two. But he certainly thought of your Dad as his.”
According to Zion’s mother, for the five years Gary was in their life, he had treated Zion like the son he’d never had. He gave him affection, took him on trips, mentored him… all the stuff a father would do, and Zion got attached. Really attached.
Gary’s death was a blow to Zion, and he’d never gotten over it. He’d become obsessed with Kenny and Marley. He thought of them as his sisters and was convinced that once they knew about him, it would be all happy tears and warm welcomes. They’d become one big happy family united in their love for Gary.
For years afterwards, he’d stalked the sisters. Only his mother’s intervention kept him from actually introducing himself to them. Still, without his mother’s knowledge, he found a way to join About It just so he could be closer to Marley.
His mother didn’t know when he’d started visiting the girls’ grandmother too, but some months ago, his attitude towards Marley had completely changed. He hated her, and told his mother that it was because she had killed Gary.
“Obviously, that’s nonsense.” Brown scoffed. “Everyone knows who killed Gary.”
“Yeah,” Kenny agreed. But there was a suspicious caginess to her tone, as she added, “It’s nonsense.”
“But Zion really believed it, and it’s what made him try to kill Marley,” Brown finished. “We’re just really, really lucky that he was also obsessed with getting away with her murder. Because if he wasn’t, this could’ve gone far, far left.”
The detective didn’t have to explain what he meant by that statement. Both Sebastian and Kenny got it. Zion had been so determined to make everything look like a suicide that he didn’t even consider just shooting Marley himself. If he had, Marley would now be in a grave, not in the hospital bed.
Thank God. Sebastian grabbed Marley’s fingers and squeezed. Though she didn’t react, the warmness of her skin was enough to ease some of the ache in his heart.
Brown left a few minutes later having reassured them that Marley wouldn’t be prosecuted for shooting at Zion because it was clearly self-defense.
Once the detective was gone, Sebastian took the opportunity to broach a subject that had been bothering him for the last week.
“Kenny,” he drew her attention to him.
Kenny, who’d since moved to the couch on the other side of the room, looked up from her phone. “Yeah?”
“There’s something I wanted to ask you.” He took a breath then asked, “Is Hazel Marley’s only personality?”
Kenny immediately stiffened and her expression became more wary. “What do you mean?”
“It’s just…” Sebastian frowned and tilted his head as he tried to figure out a way to explain himself. “That day on the rooftop, there was something just really, really different about Marley.”
Kenny put down her phone. “She was different because she was Hazel.”
“No.” He inhaled deeply. “Hazel has this vibe. A little out of control and impulsive. But this was different. There was an icy coldness that I’ve never gotten from Hazel. It didn’t feel like Hazel, but it didn’t feel like Marley either. I don’t know how to explain it.”
“No, you’re over-thinking this.” Kenny suddenly seemed panicked as she insisted, “It was Hazel. It was Hazel. It was Hazel. You saw wrong. Don’t even tell anyone else what you just said, because you’re wrong. It was Hazel.”
Kenny’s vigorous insistence and anxiousness set off his alarm bells. It felt like she was hiding something.
Sebastian itched to ask more questions, but he just nodded. “Okay, I guess I saw wrong.”
Something told him that this was one of those situations where it was advisable not to ask questions whose answers he wasn’t ready for.