Chapter 5 The Confession

"We," Tati repeated, the word catching in her throat. She looked at him, really looked at him. "You're talking like this is something we're doing together. Like you actually believe I can handle this."

"I know you can," Kai said simply. "You've already survived the hardest part—getting out. You've rebuilt your life. You've kept moving forward even when everything was pulling you back." He stepped closer, his dark eyes holding hers. "The only difference now is you're not doing it alone. And that changes everything."

Despite everything—the fear, the exhaustion, the weight of her past pressing down on her—Tati felt something unexpected: a spark of hope. Of possibility. And it terrified her how much of that solid ground was Kai.

"There's something else," she said quietly, and the hope that had sparked a moment ago flickered and dimmed.

She stopped. The words lodged in her throat like stones. Her breath came shorter, shallower. She pressed her palms flat against the table, needing something solid beneath her hands because everything else felt like it was tilting.

"Something I haven't told you yet."

Kai didn't push. He just waited, his presence steady and patient in a way that somehow made it both easier and harder to continue.

Tati's fingers curled against the wood grain of the table. She could feel her pulse hammering in her wrists, in her throat. "About why this is so much worse than just blackmail or money."

She tried to continue but couldn't. The confession sat heavy on her tongue, tasting like ash and regret. She wrapped her arms around herself, suddenly cold despite the warmth of the coffee shop. Her shoulders drew inward, making herself smaller, as if she could physically protect herself from the weight of what she was about to say.

"Maya had a younger sister," she finally managed, and her voice cracked on the word 'sister.' She forced herself to meet Kai's eyes, to not look away from what she was about to confess, even though every instinct screamed at her to run. "Lily."

Past tense. The words hung heavy between them, and Tati watched understanding dawn in Kai's expression.

"She was twenty-two. A law student at Georgetown." Tati's breath hitched. She could see Lily so clearly—the way she'd worn her hair in a high ponytail when she studied, how she'd bite her bottom lip when she was concentrating, the fierce determination in her eyes when she talked about justice. "She had this laugh that was too loud for libraries, and she was always getting shushed. She'd bring me coffee with too much sugar because she said I needed sweetness in my life. She was brilliant, passionate about justice, always wanting to help people who couldn't help themselves."

Tati's voice broke completely. She pressed her hand against her mouth, trying to hold back the sob that wanted to escape.

"When I found out about Marcus and David's schemes, when I knew I had to get out but didn't know how—" She stopped again, shaking her head. Her hands were trembling so badly now that she had to clasp them together. "Lily wanted to help. She said we could build a case, gather evidence, make sure they actually faced consequences instead of just letting me run."

The tears came before she could stop them, hot and bitter, blurring her vision.

"I should have said no." The words came out raw, scraped from somewhere deep inside her. "I should have told her to stay out of it, that it was too dangerous, that I wasn't worth the risk. But I was desperate and scared and selfish, and I let her help me. I let her believe we could actually win against men like Marcus."

She swiped angrily at her tears, but they kept coming. Her chest felt tight, like she couldn't get enough air.

"Three years ago, two weeks after I left the city, Lily died in a car accident." The words came out flat, emotionless, carefully measured, because if she let herself feel them—really feel them—she'd shatter completely into a thousand irreparable pieces. "Single-vehicle collision on Route 9, just outside of town. She lost control on a curve near Miller's Pass, went off the road and down into the ravine. The police ruled it an accident within forty-eight hours of finding her. Faulty brakes, they said. A mechanical failure that no one could have predicted or prevented. Just one of those tragic, random things that happen to good people for no reason at all." She paused, swallowing hard against the tightness in her throat. "They closed the case before I even made it back for the funeral."

"But it wasn't an accident," Kai said quietly. Not a question. And something in his voice—the certainty, the lack of judgment—made Tati's composure crack even further.

"No." Her hands were shaking so badly she had to press them against her thighs to still them. "Marcus had her brakes tampered with. I know he did. The timing was too perfect, too convenient. Lily was the only person besides Maya who knew everything, who had access to the evidence we'd gathered. And then suddenly she was just... gone."

The guilt crashed over her in waves, the same way it had every day for three years. It was a physical thing, pressing down on her chest, making it hard to breathe.

"Maya and I—we couldn't prove it. There was no evidence of tampering that the police could find, or maybe they just didn't look hard enough. We went to them with everything we knew, every suspicion, every detail that felt wrong about the accident. But without physical proof, without witnesses, without anything concrete to tie Marcus to what happened, they closed the case within weeks. Marcus was too careful, too connected. He had friends in high places, people who owed him favors, a network of influence that stretched farther than we ever realized. He knew how to cover his tracks, how to make things look like accidents, coincidences, unfortunate timing."

She finally let herself break, the sobs coming in harsh, ragged gasps that tore through her chest. Her whole body shook with the weight of grief she'd been carrying for so long. "That's why Maya and I cut contact completely. It wasn't just about keeping me away from Marcus, though that was part of it. It was because every time she looked at me, she saw the person who got her sister killed.