Page 14 of A Cursed Heart
“How? How could you have—That doesn’t make sense, Ryan. What the fuck?”
Looking at Lydia, I could see her anguish. “I made sure there was tainted fentanyl in her place. It was supposed to be for her boyfriend.”
Lydia sat back, stunned. “Explain.”
So I did. I told her what I’d seen. Some of it she knew. I kept some things from her, which made her angry at me. “You should have asked me to help! I’d have gone over there, been a witness, anything!”
“They would never have believed you, Lydia. With you being my sister, they wouldn’t have believed a word you said. Her boyfriend was smart about it, he wouldn’t have done shit with you there.”
“Okay, maybe. So you got the drugs, and what?”
“After I got them, I left them hidden in her house. She said she was off them… I hoped she wasn’t lying, but…” A sob escaped. The guilt was utterly crushing. “I killed her.”
Lydia knelt beside me, her hand on my thigh. Compassion filled her expression. “It was an accident, Ryan. You didn’t know she was still using.”
“Of course she was. Deep down I knew it, and I still left those drugs there. I killed her.” Tears were running down my cheeks. If I could’ve taken it all back, I would have.
“No. The drugs did. If it hadn’t been those, it would have been another batch or one of the guys she slept with for money. Jasmine was…” Lydia was crying, too. “Jasmine was on a bad path, Ryan. I don’t think she had it in her to get better. She didn’t think she had a problem and, worse still, she was letting Freya get hurt because she loved drugs more.”
“That’s not true—” I defended.
“Her addiction was winning. We’d already lost her when she protected her boyfriend instead of her kid.”
“Still, I shouldn’t—”
“It was an accident, Ryan.”
“I still killed someone, Liddy. Jasmine might have been an accident, but Eric wasn’t.” I hated using that scumbag’s name.
Lydia’s tears had slowed. Her face hardened. “You were protecting Freya. You did the right thing.” She went back to her seat, and we lapsed into silence. “Is that what’s been bothering you today?”
“No. It gets worse.” She waited for me to explain. “Someone knows what I did.”
