Midnight Angel [Jenlisa FF]

~'~'~ Chapter 17 ~'~'~

There was no easy way to respond to the statement Jennie made, that the rape had led to her family members' deaths, Lisa realized. All through her research on the events of four years ago, there was only one conclusion she'd been able to come to. The police had missed some key information, clues that changed everything. So, either they were really incompetent, or they'd done it on purpose. She was betting on the latter considering the fact that Cameron Walker's father was police chief, and the police chief's best friend was Mayor Richard Sonner, a man she'd been told was rotten to the core.

That line of thinking took Lisa down another road. Someone had killed three of the Kim family. Who else had a motive other than Cameron Walker's family, and his family's friends, to take revenge on Jennie. No one. By the things Jisoo had told her, the Walkers, and their entourage, had been quite vicious to Jennie after the rape. Would they have possibly gone so far as to commit murder to get back at her? Considering that the blame got laid on Jennie's head, yes. It was a perfect way to ruin her.

If her suppositions were correct, then, Cameron's father, and others, had arranged the murder of Jennie's family. But that didn't mean any of it was her fault, and that was what she, along with Jin, Jisoo, and Jackson, had to get her to understand. How she was going to do that, Lisa didn't have a clue.

When no on dared to refute her claim, Jennie slumped back in the chair. She'd killed her family just as if she'd used the knife on them. No one had to tell her that. The facts were staring her right in the face. "This is all my fault," she said brokenly.

Lisa's head jerked up and she stared at her hard as she forcefully disagreed with her. "No, Jennie. This was anything but your fault."

"But if I-."

"No," Lisa cut her off abruptly. "It was not your fault," she repeated.

Jisoo, still kneeling in front of the chair, took one of Jennie's hands to draw her attention. "What did you do wrong to make what happened your fault?" she asked simply.

The question gave Jennie pause. What had she done wrong? "I...I accused Cameron of...of raping me." That was, after all, what had started everything.

"Accused?" Jisoo repeated, disheartened by the defeat she heard in Jennie's voice. "He raped you, Jennie. Cameron Walker raped you. He's the one to blame for all this. Him, his father, and all his cronies."

"But-." Again, Jennie was interrupted.

"There's no buts about it," Jisoo stated emphatically. She looked directly at Jennie. "Did Cameron rape you?" Jennie nodded her head yes, unable to say it aloud. "Did you go to the police and tell them the truth about what happened?" Jisoo then asked.

"You know I did," she answered softly.

"Then you did nothing wrong!" Jisoo squeezed Jennie's hand, forced her to raise her eyes. "You were the victim, Jennie. And the police were supposed to help you. You can't be blamed for their corruption and what they did afterwards."

A few tears slipped out of Jennie's eyes, her lower lip quivered as she fought the urge to break down and cry. In her heart, she knew they were right. All she'd done was tell the truth about what had happened in the locker room the day of her seventeenth birthday. But still...

"If I hadn't said anything, none of this would have happened," she said, voicing the one thought in her mind.

Jin, who'd stood and walked over to her chair, ran a gentle hand down her hair. "None of us could have predicted what happened, Jennie," he told her, keeping his hand on her shoulder. "The police are supposed to help people and punish the bastards who do things like what Cameron did to you. You couldn't have known what would happen."