Lauren rested her cheek in her hand. She stared right into his eyes. “Answer me one question. If I told you that I forbid you to be with Bonnie, that I would never speak to you again if she was the one you wanted to be with, who would you choose, me or Bonnie?”
Aaron’s heart sank. She was supposed to see the light. She was supposed to want him to be happy, not make him choose between two of the most important people in his life. He shouldn’t have to. He also knew that if Lauren actually gave him that ultimatum, Bonnie would refuse to be with him. She would never allow him to destroy his relationship with his sister to have one with her.
“I would say, Lauren, I love you. You are my sister, and I care about you and I want the best for you. I also expect the people I love to love me back. And if you really loved me, you’d never ask me to forsake my happiness for yours.”
He waited anxiously for her reply, because he hadn’t really answered her question. He’d instead asked her to reconsider asking it. “That was one heck of an answer. You somehow managed to choose Bonnie without not choosing me. You must really love her.”
“I do. And I know deep down in that broken heart of yours, you do, too.”
“Let’s not go that far. Can we please get out of here? I don’t know who you have to convince, but I need to go home.”
Lauren cooperated with the police. She gave them all the names of everyone who she had complained to about Bonnie, Mitch and Aaron. She did her best to account for her time. Aaron even suggested they get her cell phone record, because he had texted her most likely right before the vandalism and immediately after. If she was way out in Morris like she thought she was during that time, the cell phone towers would confirm it.
They released her, much to their parents’ relief. With that settled, Aaron was in a much better mental state to take care of things back at the house. His sister had confirmed what he knew to be true. She hadn’t done that to him. She would never have done that to him.
Everyone was in the kitchen, gathered around the island when he returned. David had the list of repairs, and it was long.
“Good news,” Aaron announced.
Bonnie spun around. “She confessed.”
He couldn’t blame her for thinking the worst of Lauren. Lauren had admitted she had done some terribly hateful things to Bonnie over the last few months.
“No, the good news is she didn’t do it.”
Everyone stared back at him wide-eyed and slack-jawed. “How do they know?” Sasha asked.
“They don’t know for sure yet, but I do, because she told me she didn’t.”
Bonnie put both hands on her head. “Are you kidding? Are you seriously joking right now? Aaron, please tell me you did not let her talk her way out of this. Please tell me you are going to hold her responsible for one time in her entire life.”
He pulled her close. “Hey, I know it’s hard to believe right now, but the evidence is going to show she didn’t do it. Please trust me. I know my sister better than anyone.”
Bonnie stepped away from him and covered her mouth with her hand. She shook her head. “She’s playing you. You’re being played by the master of manipulation. She did this when she was mad. She doesn’t want to deal with the consequences, so she’s lying and she’s going to play on your emotions and your good heart and your complete denial so she can get away with it.”
“I spent a long time talking to her. We aired out a lot of our differences. She’s in a much better mental space than she’s been in in months. We’re not going to blame her anymore.”
Bonnie exploded. “I’m going to blame her forever! If you want to live in your denial, you go right ahead, but I won’t live there with you. I am going to live in reality.”
“Bon Bon,” her dad said, trying to refocus her, but she would have none of it.
“No! No one defend her. I won’t listen to it anymore. No.” She was shaking with anger. Aaron was at a loss for how to help her calm down. “I can’t be here if everyone here is going to pretend that Lauren didn’t do this.”
She stormed past Aaron, bumping his shoulder on her way out. Everyone else was frozen in their spot until Mitch moved.
“I’m going to go after her. I don’t think she should be alone right now.”
CHAPTER EIGHTEEN
“OF ALL THE MANIPULATIVE, horrible, monstrous things she has done this summer, this really takes the cake.” Bonnie had spent the last half hour raging about Lauren to Mitch. They had gone back to his condo. He seemed to be the only one who understood. Maybe it was because he had lived under Lauren’s control. He knew exactly how conniving she could be.
“You’re right. I don’t understand how the rest of them don’t see it. It’s like one of those things where what people are looking for is sitting right in front of them but they don’t see it. They won’t look right in front of their faces.”
“Exactly! What else could she have done to make it more obvious? What’s Lauren’s favorite color?”
“Pink,” Mitch replied, not missing a beat.
“Who does she blame for everything that has gone wrong in her life?”
“You.”
“Me. ‘Blame Bonnie.’ That’s what she wrote on the fireplace!” She opened her eyes wide and flailed her arms around. “How much more obvious can she be?”
“It doesn’t get more obvious, if you ask me.”
She continued to pace in front of his giant eighty-inch wall-mounted television set. The television Lauren had picked out, no doubt. “And where was Lauren last night?”
“No one knows.”
“No one knows. She was in her car. Where could she
