He nodded, a muscle ticking in his jaw. “All right.”
“He …” I tried to step out of that life and back into this one because it provided the distance that allowed me to live with the past. “He raped and strangled her.”
Arran made a hoarse, wounded sound, and I gripped his hands tighter.
“But he got away with it. They found his DNA on her, but they said because they were in a relationship, it only proved that she’d slept with him at some point before her attack.”
“What the fuck?”
I nodded, wanting to be numb to the injustice. “The house was wrecked, so his defense concluded that someone else had broken in and raped and killed her. Our reports to the cops had magically disappeared, and there was no record of her filing any complaints against him. Friends lied and said they were still dating. It didn’t even go to trial, Arran,” I said, my rage bubbling up from where I kept it locked tight.
Arran shook his head. “How? Fucking how?”
“I didn’t have time to be angry. A lot of people in our community were angry, and there were protests. Once upon a time, all you had to do was google my sister’s name and you’d find articles all over the internet about it. But to protect me, Lachlan employed someone to run a program that finds any mention of me or my sister. Then his hacker took the pages down. For a few years, there were articles, conspiracy theories, that it was Jefferson’s family wiping the internet clean of it, thus proving his guilt. But there haven’t been any in a long time. People just eventually forgot.”
Arran’s chest rose fast and shallow. “Lachlan’s doing that because Jefferson came after you, didn’t he?”
I nodded. “That’s why I didn’t have time to be angry. He started stalking me. And I was too afraid to go to the police because there didn’t seem to be any point. He made problems for me with the company I danced for, and I lost my job. He wanted me to have nowhere else to turn but him.”
“All because you looked like Kia?”
“Yes. It wasn’t about me. He didn’t see me. He just saw her and this twisted idea that he had a chance to make her his again. I’d gotten work at a hotel gym as a Pilates instructor. I did a lot of Pilates while training as a dancer, so when I couldn’t get work dancing, I started instructing.
“One night I was afraid to go home, so I slept in the locker room. That morning I was leaving before the gym opened, and Ezra had tracked me down. You know, he was so convinced of his invincibility that he didn’t care about the cameras in the gym. He snapped quicker with me than he did my sister.” I still remembered the terror, the brutal burn in the wake of each punch. The feel of his fingers curling around the waistband of my yoga pants.
I shuddered. “I don’t know what would have happened if Mac and Lachlan hadn’t shown up early thinking the gym would be open. They were in LA to recruit members for the club. They got him off me and got me away from him, and I don’t know why … I just told them everything. It all spilled out. Lachlan kept me safe in his hotel suite while he checked out my story.” A sob burst from me as I relived the profound relief of that moment. “He believed me.”
Arran cursed under his breath and pulled me into him again.
“I’d been so alone in it for months. Even with the people who believed, so many voices still called me a liar. And here was this Hollywood actor, of all people, who took me seriously. Of course, he’d seen firsthand what Ezra was capable of. But he didn’t know me.” I looked up at Arran. “I was a total stranger, and he jumped right in to help. He paid for a new identity for me. He gave me a fresh start. And he helped me sell Granny’s house so I could pay him back. I’ve never met anyone like your family, Arran.”
He squeezed me closer, his voice hoarse as he said, “I’ve never been prouder of you. Lachlan might have helped, but you were the one who had the courage to start over somewhere new. That must have been terrifying, but you did it.”
I looked at him, sad, a little defeated. “I ran. I hid. I didn’t get justice for my sister. I’m not who I used to be without her. For a while, I didn’t know who I was at all. It took me a few years, but I finally know who I am without my twin sister. And I’m broken, Arran. This new me is broken in ways I don’t know can ever be fixed. I want to be with you. But I don’t know if I can ever be what you’ll need me to be.”