BLUE BLOOD

54 | '0216'

Our eyes met. His were just as unreadable as the first time we really spoke.

"You let me give you my trust, my secrets, my body-" Tears filled my eyes and a heartbroken smile curved my lips. "Only for to be played like a fool."

It was on me. How many times I have told myself to not fall for his embrace? For his charm and boyish smile? To not let myself trust him, as much as I wanted to?

Kalina's words once again resonated with me.

Never fall in love with a blue blood.

"I had to know, Vesper," Avery swallowed, voice a deep rasp. "I had to know why my little sister died."

"I'll tell you what happened," I told him, wiping away any remainder of tears before facing him. "I know what happened to Grace Dragomir."

Avery struggled against his chains at my words, forgetting he was tied up. "What? How?"

"Gloria owed me a favor," I murmured, slowly walking until I was right next to him. "I found her son and in exchange, she gave me recordings."

Realization filled Avery's eyes. "Confessions."

The words came out robotically. "Satin, Cole, Kalina, and Blake recorded confessions about what actually happened that night."

Avery was quiet for a moment, staring at the fireplace in thought. I didn't speak, letting him figure out why. He finally broke the silence. "Grace didn't suicide, did she?"

"She didn't," I told him, unable to look at him. "She was murdered."

The torn look in his eyes wrenched at my heart. I've never seen so much emotion from him except for the few, rare intimate moments we had shared. But how real were those emotions? I didn't know and I didn't want to think about it.

I was such a fool.

"How do you know?" When I didn't answer, Avery repeated, "How did you find out?"

"Gloria gave me their recordings in exchange for her son," I confessed, swallowing. "I listened to them. Satin admitted what happened."

"And you've been collecting recordings of confessions ever since, haven't you?" Avery whispered. "Confessions of what they did to Ella."

I didn't answer him because he already knew the answer. I had been recording and forcing confessions out but I still lacked the confessions I needed.

"Who?" Avery croaked out, "Who killed her?"

I debated keeping the truth from him like the way he kept it from me but I wasn't able to. "Satin Queens."

'What did the rest of them do?"

"Blake stopped Kalina from stopping Satin. Cole and Ella saw Satin shove Grace off the building," I told him, watching his expression carefully. "That's when they started paying attention to Ella... to keep her silent."

Silence filled the large room. Avery didn't seem surprised. Almost as if... he suspected. Instead, he closed his eyes in grief and calm anger. "They recorded all of these confessions to prevent this murder from getting out, didn't they?"

"Everyone but-"

"Ella," Avery finished, knowingly. "That's why you started targeting everyone." Avery pieced it together. "Once Gloria gave you those confessions, you suspected that this wasn't the only time they made confessions."

"If they made confessions about Grace, the murderers had to have made confessions about Ella."

"How many confessions have you collected?"