Page 48 of Ranger's Wildflower

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Watched again.

And this time—

I saw it.

Red hair visible through the passenger window.

Me.

Passenger side.

Not driving.

My knees weakened instantly.

“This proves…” My voice broke completely. “I wasn’t driving.”

The phone slipped in my hand.

“I knew I wasn’t…”

Six years of pain because no one would listen to me, cracked wide open inside my chest all at once.

“I told them, I didn’t do it.”

The whisper barely made it out.

Then louder—

“I told them, I didn’t do it!”

My legs gave out beneath me.

The floor rushed upward—

but Ace dropped in front of me before I hit it.

“No,” he said firmly, catching me against him. “They didn’t listen.”

A sob ripped free from somewhere deep inside me.

“They lied,” I whispered against his chest. “They let me take it…”

Ace’s arms tightened around me.

“Yeah,” he said quietly.

I grabbed fistfuls of his shirt, shaking so hard I couldn’t stop.

Six years.

Six years believing they thought I did it. Somebody knows the truth.

Believing maybe everyone else saw something terrible in me that I couldn’t.

And now the truth sat glowing on a phone screen between us.

Real.

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