Page 80 of Criminally Yours

Millie

She returned to her bed and tried to sleep, but within minutes, her phone rang again.

“Dexter, why did you hide Caleb’s letter, then rip it up and return it without telling me?”

“It’s five a.m. here, and you don’t even say hello. I don’t know what you mean about a letter.” His voice hit a higher pitch.

“Don’t lie to me. I can’t be arsed with your bullshit.”

“What’s got into you? You never talk to me like this.”

“Because when you left for university, I was barely a teenager, and I admired you.”

“And now?” he stuttered.

“You’re always judging me.” She grabbed a hairband and twisted it around her fingers. “Tell me why you hid the letter from me, or our relationship is done forever.”

“I presumed Caleb told you one of my secrets in the letter. That’s why I opened it.”

Millie nearly dropped the phone. “What?”

“The night after Caleb’s last college exam, I was homewith old friends. He was out celebrating with his classmates. He saw me.”

Millie twisted the band as she held the phone between her ear and shoulder. “He’d wanted me to join him, but I insisted he spend time with his friends.” At five a.m. that day, he’d texted her to meet him in the shed. She sat in his lap, and he held her tight until the sun came up before sneaking home, but he’d never explained what was wrong. “He didn’t say he saw you.”

“Because I told him not to. He rescued me that night.”

“Did you get in a fight?”

“I tried to.” Dexter sighed. “He rescued me from myself.”

“I don’t understand.”

Dexter paused for so long that Millie checked they were still connected.

“It started when I left university and joined a finance firm in London.”

“I remember. Mum was so proud. Her best boy conquering the world.”

“It wasn’t like that. They forced us to work eighteen-hour days. And when we weren’t working, we partied. The only way to keep up was to take drugs. I spent my days on coke.”

“What? You never said.”

“No one outside of work knew. My bosses encouraged it. They did it, too. That night, I was home and acting like the big man in town. I took more than normal. I drank too much and acted like a shithead. I didn’t care, though. I spiralled because I was so unhappy in my job and couldn’t see a way out.”

“What happened?”

“I got aggressive. I always did when I took coke. I was ejected from the club, my friends ditched me, and the next thing I knew, Caleb was sitting with me and telling me theparamedics were coming. He’d kept an eye on me from the moment I arrived in the club.”

“Why paramedics?” She tasted blood from where she’d ripped a hole in her lip from how hard she bit it.

“I wasn’t just aggressive. I struggled to breathe, and then I collapsed. I don’t remember any of it, but Caleb said I had a seizure. He sat with me and kept me safe.”

“He didn’t want you to be alone.” Millie’s head dropped to her chest.

“I guess.”

She gritted her teeth. “I can’t believe you never told me this.”