The Truest Thing - Hart's Boardwalk

Cooper’s features slackened with shock. “What the fuck?”

“You know she isn’t his, Coop.”

He was one of the few people in town who knew Rebecca wasn’t Ian Devlin’s daughter.

“He didn’t give a flying fuck about her. But he knew I did. So he sent her away to school in England and blackmailed me into giving up my entire life and falling in line.”

“Blackmailed you how?”

“He said he’d give Rebecca up to the police and plant evidence that it was me, not Stu, who helped her bury the body.”

“Jesus Fucking Christ.” Cooper stumbled to his couch, slumping down on it, his head in his hands. “Fuck, Jack. Fuck!” He glared up at him, outrage written all over his face. “Why the fuck didn’t you tell me?”

Seeing and hearing the rage in Coop’s voice, Jack’s throat closed with emotion.

Emery was right.

His defection had wrecked Coop as much as it had wrecked him.

“I couldn’t do that to you. I couldn’t have this secret hanging over your life. Do you know what it was like for me, driving around this town, wondering where that fucking body was, wondering when the anvil would come crashing down to ruin Becs, me, my mom. And if you knew … you’d be complicit, Cooper, and it would take you down with us. I couldn’t have that.”

“So, what did you do?” Realization dawned on Cooper. “Huh? Say it.”

“You kept asking me what was wrong. You kept pushing.” Jack found himself getting agitated as he remembered. “You knew it was fucked up that I’d sold my company, started working for a man I hated. You wouldn’t let it go. I knew you wouldn’t stop. The only way to keep you safe was to push you out of my life. And Dana … I hated that you had no clue what a disloyal, conniving bitch she really was.”

“So you showed me.”

Jack flinched at the underlying rage in his ex-friend’s voice. “I did what I thought was best for you.”

“That’s why I never saw you with her again. That’s why you warned Jess about my license. Nailed Stu for hitting Bailey. Then what the hell was Vanessa, huh?”

He swallowed hard. “I had to keep tabs on her. When I realized she would go through with the sale … I convinced her to go with Tremaine’s offer instead.”

Cooper’s head jerked in surprise. He stood, pointing a finger. “That stays between us. Bailey thinks her sister did the right thing in the end.”

Jack sighed. “Maybe Bailey should know what her sister is capable of so she knows not to trust her.”

“Jesus fuck,” Coop repeated as he paced the living room. “And Rebecca? She’s been charged?”

“They lied to me, Coop.” Jack crossed his arms over his chest. “Rebecca was …” Saying it still made him sick with guilt. “The guy was raping her. There was no trying. He did. Ian found out later he was wanted for multiple rapes in different states.”

Cooper looked as devastated as Jack felt. “Oh, hell. Little Becs.”

Jack swallowed down the emotion threatening to explode out of him. He looked at the floor, taking a minute.

“What happened, Jack?”

“Stu heard her crying out for help in the pool house. He saw the guy raping her and hit him in the head with a dumbbell. Repeatedly.” Jack looked up and found Cooper’s expression surprised again. “He was just trying to protect her.”

Coop nodded, dazed.

“Rebecca came home a few days ago and went to the sheriff. Confessed. They found the body and the weapon. It’s got Stu’s prints all over it. They charged Becs with aiding and abetting. She’s out on bail.”

“I can’t believe this.” Cooper shook his head. “I mean, I knew it had to be something, but murder … fuck.”

“I want you to forgive me.” The words blurted out of Jack before he could stop himself.

Cooper’s eyes narrowed.

“I don’t expect it. I’m not asking you for it. But I want it.”

His friend looked at him. Really looked at him. There was no hardness or anger. But there was a shitload of weariness in Cooper’s eyes. “Before Dana, I considered you the truest man I had ever known.”

Jack flinched.

“I’m glad you told me, Jack. However, that doesn’t mean I understand your reasoning. We were brothers. I would’ve done anything for you. And maybe if you’d told me what was going on, I could have helped you figure it out. You devastated my life. You think I cared in the end that she cheated on me? No. I cared that she cheated on me with you. That you betrayed me. And now I find out it was all to push me away, protect me? I don’t know if I get that. I don’t know if I ever will.”

Jack’s hope deflated.

He hadn’t realized how much he needed that forgiveness from Coop.

Neither he nor Emery trusted him.

Jack knew he deserved the consequences of his actions. Didn’t make it any harder to swallow.