“What happened next?” There was a chill in Dorian’s voice, and I had thoughts I wished I had been there. I wished he would have woken me up yesterday.
I wanted to be there for him.
He obviously had the other guys then, but I didn’t care. I continued to have a draw to this boy I just couldn’t understand. It was one that made me destroy houses and send pregnancy tests to women I didn’t know. It was maddening.
It was intoxicating.
Dorian Prinze was a drug I didn’t want to get off, and I hoped to God this video had the words he needed. The truth. What happened with Charlie wasn’t his fault.
I hope you heard that yesterday.
I could only pray now as I watched the feed today, a broken woman admitting her truth.
“That’s when I admitted the affair,” she gasped. “I said I was leaving him for another man, and honestly, Richard was so shocked he did nothing for a moment. He was angry, but he did nothing. He stormed out of the house like a madman. I assumed he went to a bar when he pulled out of the driveway. That’s what he does. Once he left, Charlie came inside, and together, we continued to pack everything we could into a suitcase before he got back…”
Her voice broke off, strained. She blinked down more tears.
“Richard came back with a gun,” she breathed, her head shaking. “He must have seen Charlie’s car. He keeps all his rifles in the garage and stopped there before he came into the house. He obviously knew someone was inside with me. He…” She swallowed. “Richard came into the room, and all I saw was the gun. He shot, two times. He didn’t even see who Charlie was before he did it. He just shot, shot to kill. He goes into these blind rages and…”
“Mayberry.” Dorian’s voice was strained, but the woman needed to go on. She needed to finish.
“It was only after Richard actually looked down at who he shot,” she cried, tears flooding down her cheeks. “He had no idea it was his quarterback.”
The accuracy of her story to what Dorian believed had been chilling. He’d guessed such a thing.
“He turned the gun on himself after that,” she said. The tears pinched between her eyelashes. “My husband had a lot of problems. He probably thought his life was over.”
It probably was in that sole decision. Not to mention the pull of Dorian’s family. Her husband’s life wouldn’t have been what it was before.
Mayberry’s voice sounded haunted during her last statement, and at this point, Bow was crying too. Tears fell over her hand, and I rubbed her arm.
“It was an accident,” she pleaded, cringing. “You have to believe me.”
The image paused after that, the video cut off.
The hall silenced.
No one said a word, just looked at each other.
Bru faced Bow.
“Did you know?” he asked her, handing her back her phone. No doubt he knew at least something about Charlie too. He’d been hanging with all the boys.
“No.” She hugged her arms, but then her cell phone rang in her hands. She studied the device, leaving my hand. “It’s my parents. I…”
Bru let her go, and I nodded. Charlie was her family.
It was a good thing school was out today. Bow could deal with this with them, something she should be doing with the closest people in her life.
Even still, Bow lifted a hand of apology before taking her phone to her ear. The hallway seemed to explode with activity right when she did. People obviously didn’t know what was going on, and I bet all of this seemed to come out of left field for so many.
“Did you know he was going to be doing that?” Bru asked, and I decided to shrug. I had known the dark prince would eventually. But I didn’t want to incriminate Dorian. That may have been his voice, but no names were given. I’d be the last one to connect him to this.
Even if the rest of the world knew his voice too.
*
Bru and I exited the school with the rest of the student body, the parking lot flooding with parents, drivers, and all kinds of activity on the way. People had obviously called whoever to come and get them, but Bru and I simply went home. My fingers itched to call Dorian, but I couldn’t do that with Bru around.