Snark flung his hands in the air. “But the media knows who she is now!” A nerve bulged out on the side of his neck. “They know her name. They know her new face. She’s ruined, Maston. There’s no going back for her.” He jerked forward, but his body rocked backward just as quick. He was shaking his head, glaring. “Why did you release the note? Why did you release her name?”

“I didn’t.” Kian’s voice rose, but it was still low. It was still deadly.

A shiver racked down my back. He was becoming colder with each accusation Snark flung at him.

“Did you not want her to live without you? That’s what would’ve happened, right? You would’ve had to let her go. Can’t be with her when she’s got a different name and face. Can’t be with her when she should be with some other guy.” Snark kept shaking his head. Disgust filled his tone. “That’s why, isn’t it? It’s not to throw her to the wolves, try to pin Edmund’s death on her. It wasn’t to save your own ass. It was about her, and you’re not doing the right thing.”

My heart was sinking lower and lower. I closed my eyes and started to turn away.

Snark continued, “You couldn’t let her go. That’s what this is about. Why were you the one to save her from her foster father? And again, you saved her a second time. Why? Both can’t be coincidental.” He stopped, letting his words hang in the air.

“You’re right.”

Snark fell quiet, blinking at Kian.

I moved forward, my heart lurching up to my throat. “He’s right?”

Kian swung those dark eyes my way, making my chest feel punched.

He said so quietly, “It wasn’t a coincidence. I mean, the first time. I wasn’t just walking by your house that day.”

“You weren’t?”

My heart was thumping hard.

“Justin Cavers.”

My head cocked to the side. “My ex-boyfriend?”

His eyes were pinned to mine, so intense and so hypnotic. “I was coming to warn you about him.”

My mouth was suddenly so dry. I licked my lips. “Why? He and I broke up a few weeks earlier.”

“Because he was going to ask you out again.” He glanced in Snark’s direction, as if gauging his reaction. When there was none, he looked back to me. “Justin was an asshole to you.”

I almost snorted. He didn’t have to tell me that. I fully knew.

He added, “He was bragging to a lot of guys at a party the weekend before. He was going to ask you out again, but he had plans for you.”

A second shiver slithered down my spine. I wanted to ask him what he meant, but I had a feeling that I already knew. Justin hadn’t been the most sensitive or gentlest of boyfriends.

“The guys were teasing Justin that you’d gotten away.” Kian’s voice dipped low once more.

My head lowered. I wasn’t sure if I wanted to even hear what he had to say.

“He said he was going to rectify that at a party the next weekend. He told my best friend that he was going to ask you out that night. That’s why I came to your house that day. A few hours later, and he would’ve been there. I just got there first.”

Snark asked, “What was he going to do to her?”

I felt Kian’s gaze lift from my head as he answered Snark, “What do you think?”

I knew.

Justin had been so rough so many times.

And I would’ve gone. I was ripped open from the inside as I realized that. I would’ve gone. I would’ve been ecstatic to leave the house and get away from Edmund. And it would’ve happened because Justin always got me where he wanted.

Kian didn’t answer Snark, but I lifted my head.

My voice was hoarse as I said, “He would’ve raped me.”

Snark’s eyes widened.

I said, “That’s why we broke up. He’d tried to force me other times. I always stopped him, but the last time”—I winced, remembering the feel of his hands on my arms—“he was too rough. I broke up with him because of it.”

Snark nodded to Kian. “How did you know he would’ve done that? Did he say those words?”

“He implied it pretty clearly.” Kain hesitated, his chest lifting in a small breath. “And because I knew someone else he raped.”

My gaze whipped to his. He did?

He was watching me, remorse filling his eyes, and the corners of his mouth curved down. He was grimacing. “I couldn’t let him do that to you, too.”

“Who?” Snark’s voice rose. “Who did he rape? And will she testify?”

“My sister, and no, she won’t.”

“Your sister…” I trailed off, remembering the times when Felicia went to the courtroom. She was always with her mother, always with her head down, and her shoulders drooping slightly. She never looked at me. Ever. “I thought she hated me, she and your mother.”

“Felicia knew why I was going to your place, but it was never talked about again in my family. I told my parents and the lawyers why, but my dad forbade letting my real reason get out.”

I never saw his dad in the courtroom. “Why didn’t your dad come to the hearing? I don’t remember seeing him there.”

“Because he was upset with me. He didn’t do a thing when Cavers raped Felicia. Justin’s dad was”—he scowled—“a business colleague of my dad’s. That didn’t mean I could let Justin do it again. That’s why I went to your house.”