I Love You, Let's Break Up (A Mystery Novel)

12 • Clues

Cole's eyes narrowed on his friend. "If you can believe him. I'm not sure I do." He pulled out his phone to text someone.

"I'm not lying. I know what I did was wrong, but I genuinely liked Lisa. If you want me to be honest, I didn't regret sleeping with her. I only regretted that she was your girlfriend."

Cole lunge forward, but Mina grabbed his arm. "Cut it out. This isn't helping. You can punch his lights out later."

"If it's true someone put a hit on Lisa, I want to help," Lance said. "That baby was mine."

Cole growled.

"I have a few boxes of my cousin's things. I've looked through them before, but maybe I missed something. We should go through them again."

Cole placed a hand on the small of her back. "We can see your father in the hospital on the way."

"Your father is in the hospital?" Lance asked, as if he and Cole hadn't been arguing about his betrayal moments before.

An hour later, they were at the hospital. Cole and Lance were in the waiting area while Mina sat near her father's hospital bed.

They bandaged Hector Cruz from head to toe. Blood seeped through the bandage on his forehead.

"I'm glad you're okay," Mina whispered.

"I'm sorry," Hector choked out. "I'm sorry you've had to suffer all your life. It's all my fault."

"I didn't suffer," Mina denied, but the words felt hollow.

A teardrop slid down his cheek. "You did. I'm a drunk. Your mother left me, so you had to grow up without her."

"That was her choice. That's not your fault."

Hector shook his head. "She left because I drank too much."

"She could've taken me with her. She didn't. Still her fault I grew up without a mother."

"There've been so many times I let you down and I regret them all. I know you worked a few jobs to earn money to help pay bills. It's why I took that job—the one that killed Lisa. If I had known... I wouldn't have done it. I figured someone wanted some sort of insurance payout."

Mina bit the inside of her cheek. His explanation made sense, but Salvatore had already admitted it had to do with Lisa. Someone who knew what would happen that day.

"You never fell in love," her father continued. "You always hold people at a distance. Don't think I didn't know you dated men based on their bank accounts."

Mina smirked. "That was a long time ago."

"Dating someone for money isn't okay. It's bad karma," her father admonished. "It's why you lost—"

"Neither is walking into oncoming traffic, but you did that yesterday. I almost lost you," she said, her voice cracking.

"I'm sorry."

"Stop saying that."

"What else can I say?" the man she always thought was strong and funny asked. He was nothing like the larger-than-life character she remembered. Now, he's broken—not even a former shell of himself.

"You can say you'll stop drinking. You can say you'll take better care of yourself. Then you can follow through and go to an AA meeting."

Hector's lips quirked up. "Okay, I can do that. For you."

"No, not for me. For you."

"For us."

After leaving the hospital, Cole made his way to the neighborhood Mina lived in. Lance stared out the backseat window in fascination. "People actually live here?"