“You ready to do this?” William asked, squeezing my hand.
I stared at the police station for a couple more seconds, then nodded. I wanted to end this once and for all. I wanted closure.
We walked inside, and one of the officers led us into a room. There was a table that stretched all the way across, divided in half by a glass wall. There were chairs on either side. I plopped down onto one and William sat down to the left of me. I looked around and tapped my fingers nervously.
“Don’t be nervous, Heather,” he said, placing his hand on mine to stop the tapping.
“I can’t help it,” I muttered. My nerves were on edge and everything was making me jump.
William gave me a comforting smile. “I’m nervous too, but we have to do this. We need answers.”
I nodded and stiffened when the door on the other side of the room opened. Natasha, Winston, and Kelly trudged in, handcuffed together. An officer came in behind them and closed the door. He nodded at us, signaling that we could begin.
I looked at the three people who had made our lives miserable. They looked like they were getting a taste of their own medicine. The three of them were wearing orange jumpsuits and looked extremely tired. Of course, that didn’t stop them from glaring murderously at us.
“What do you want?” Winston snapped.
“Answers,” William replied calmly.
They looked at each other and sighed.
“I should have known you two would show up,” Kelly muttered angrily.
“Can you blame us?” I asked, raising an eyebrow.
She rolled her eyes and stared at the table.
“Will you guys just cooperate and answer our questions?” William asked, glaring at each one of them.
“Who said we had to answer?” Kelly said smugly.
“Well, considering the fact that you will be in jail for quite a while, I would say there is no point in keeping the information to yourself,” he said coldly.
They stayed quiet, and my grip on William’s hand tightened.
“Well?” I asked.
“Fine,” Kelly said, giving in.
“What made you start this?” I asked, looking her dead in the eye, daring her to lie.
She rolled her eyes. “Don’t you already know?”
“I want to hear it from you,” I replied.
She sighed and took a deep breath. “It all started when Natasha confessed that she loved William. At the time, William was closed off and a workaholic, so I told her I would do my best to get him to go on a date with her. Then one night we heard our parents talking about getting you and William married. Natasha became furious and blackmailed me, saying that if William ever got married to you, she would get me fired from my job and make sure no one else would hire me.”
I glanced at Natasha, who was staring at her best friend blankly.
Some friend she was.
“When the two of you got engaged, I told Natasha, and with one phone call she destroyed my career. The next day, I was fired, my reputation shattered. My life was practically over. That was when I realized I wanted revenge. Revenge for you marrying William.” She glared at me like I was the culprit.
She had to be kidding. Natasha was the one who blackmailed her and instead she turned the blame on me. How was she not mad at Natasha?
She stared at her fingers. “I told William that I wanted revenge on you because you had supposedly bullied and blackmailed me, and he was an idiot who believed my sob story.”
William squeezed my fingers and I looked up at him. He was staring at me with a remorseful look on his face. “I’m so sorry,” he mouthed.
I shook my head at him and mouthed, “I forgave you.”
Kelly cleared her throat, interrupting our little communication. “But after you two had that little kiss at the park, he started doubting me. So that was when I threatened to hurt or kill you. I was fine with either. He obviously didn’t want any harm to come to you, so he continued helping me, thinking I wouldn’t notice those little moments you two had. Unfortunately, he broke down in front of you one day and, well, you know the rest. He turned against me.”
I nodded slowly and turned to Winston. “Where do you tie into all this?”
His eyes widened with anger and I gulped. “I would have gotten Solace Enterprises if William divorced you. One of the clauses in our grandfather’s will was that William had to be engaged or married to you for at least a month or the next person in line would get the company, and that would be me.”
He chuckled darkly, running his eyes down my body. “But I didn’t realize how beautiful a wife William had. No wonder he wouldn’t leave after a month.”
I glared at him and William growled, “Keep your eyes off my wife.”
Winston laughed and looked at the wall behind us. “In short, I was helping Kelly for the company and getting you in bed.”
I gave him a look of disgust and shook my head. “So you’re saying this all started because Natasha loved William?”
They nodded and I looked at Natasha. She was just picking at her nails without a care in the world.
Natasha looked up and raised an eyebrow. “What do I have to say? You ratted me out and, honestly, I don’t care. I knew I was going to end up here someday or another.”
I gave up trying to figure these people out. The important thing was that they were in jail.
“All right, folks, time’s up. I have to get these three back to their cells,” the officer said, opening the door to lead the three of them out.
We nodded and left the room. Once we got outside, I took a deep breath of fresh air. That was a lot to process, even though I knew some of it. I looked up at William and smiled softly. “It’s finally over, we got most of the answers we needed.”
He nodded and took my hands in his. “I feel so guilty, Heather. I can’t ever forgive myself for what I did to you.”
I held his face in my hands and made him look me in the eye. “I forgave you, William, and I don’t regret it.”
“Heather, I pretty much abused you. I just…I can’t…” He growled, frustrated, shaking his head and plopping down on the curb. He put his head in his hands. I sat down beside him and put my hand on his arm.
“Please don’t do this to yourself. I forgave you for a reason. If I didn’t think you deserved another chance, I would have walked out the door and never looked back,” I said, pulling him so he would face me.
The look on his face broke my heart. It was so sad. His eyes were filled with unshed tears and there were so many emotions in them. I could see pain, anger, and remorse that he had obviously been hiding for so long. I never realized he still felt guilty about how he treated me, especially after all that we’d been through.
“William,” I whispered hoarsely.
I wrapped my arms around him and let him cry into my shoulder. Then my own tears started to fall.
We sat there in front of the police station, crying for each other’s pain and letting go of the past.