"He was lying," Dillon said.
"Why should I believe you?" Kelsey asked.
"Because I'm telling the truth."
"No, you're not."
"Kelsey, stop," I said.
She looked at me in confusion. "You're buying into this? I know you're naïve, Willow. You don't read men very well, but he's clearly delusional."
"There are things you don't know," I told her. Turning back to Dillon, I said, "What else did Melanie tell you?"
"Melanie said Gage told her to get an abortion, but she wasn't going to do that. She would have the baby and raise it alone. Apparently, he just said good luck and walked away. She was devastated. I tried to comfort her. I tried to give her some weed, but she said it wouldn't be good for the baby. We sat on the beach for a while. She wrote in her diary until it got dark. Then she got a call and suddenly smiled. She said she thought things with Gage were going to work out after all. And she had to go to the house."
A shiver ran down my spine. "She just went to his house?"
"I was happy for her," Dillon said, his eyes darkening. "I sat on the beach for a while after that, but then I noticed she'd left her diary behind. I knew how much she loved writing in that book, so I picked it up and walked down the beach. I didn't think I could drive at that point. I went up the path behind the Chadwick house to return it to her. I was halfway up the hill when something went flying off the cliff and into the ocean. I thought someone had fallen, but I hadn't heard a scream, and I couldn't see what happened from where I was. I figured I was just stoned, and it was a big rock falling. When I got to the top, I ran into Tom. I asked him what fell, and he told me to go back to the beach. He practically shoved me down the path. He said I'd be arrested for trespassing if I didn't get off their property. I tried to tell him I was just looking for Melanie, but he wouldn't hear me. So, I left. I think I passed out for a while when I got back to the beach."
My heart was beating so fast I could barely breathe. "But you said Gage killed Melanie? It sounds like Tom pushed her off the cliff."
"I asked Tom the next day what happened. He said I was imagining stuff. He was never there. I was never there. It was just a dream. When I kept asking questions, he got more furious than I'd ever seen him. He shoved me up against the wall of his house. He said I needed to shut up that he was trying to protect me. If I didn't keep my mouth shut, I'd go to jail. Melanie's disappearance would be pinned on me. I'd end up in a cell, and he knew I couldn't take it because of what happened to me when I was a kid, when I was locked in a closet. I don't know if you ever knew about that."
"Ben said you had a rough childhood, but I didn't know that."
"Yeah, well, I couldn't take the chance that I'd go to jail. And it was easier to think it was just a weird dream that I'd had. I didn't want to believe the sheriff, the man who was like a father to me, could have done something bad. I also didn't want to think I'd done something bad that I couldn't remember. Years passed, and no one ever found Melanie. And then one night I was at the Ryan's house. Ben wasn't there. It was just me and Tom. The old man was drinking heavily. He was looking through a bunch of photos, and he started talking about making mistakes. He said he had a kid who didn't even know him. The worst part was that he was still in love with that woman, and he couldn't stop wanting to make her happy, wanting to protect her."
"Did he tell you that Gage was his kid?" I asked. "Did he actually say that?"
"Yes. I picked up the photos, and I said, this is Gage. He told me not to tell anyone. It was a secret he would take to his grave, along with the other secret."
"The other secret?"
"That's when I asked him what really happened at the Chadwick house that night. He gave me a weird look and said he'd done something he'd never thought he'd do. He'd covered up a crime. He'd wanted to come clean, but it wasn't just about love. Money had been exchanged. His hands had been dirtied. He couldn't speak the truth without it taking him down, too. He picked up the photo, and he looked right at Gage, and that's when it all clicked in. I said Gage killed Melanie, and you protected him. He got all shook up then. He shut down. Reminded me I'd spend the rest of my days in jail if I ever tried to say anything."
"So, you stayed silent. You let Drake and his family continue to suffer with the uncertainty of what happened to Melanie."
"He only came clean two years ago—eight years after Melanie disappeared," Dillon said defensively. "Drake had a life in Seattle. His family was happy again. And I didn't have any proof. It was just my word against the sheriff. Who was going to believe me?" He paused. "To be honest, I guess there was a part of me that didn't want to take down the sheriff. Tom took care of me when I was in trouble as a kid. And he was Ben's dad. I felt like I was part of their family." Dillon drew in a breath and let it out. "But when everyone came back to the island this week, all the memories returned. I felt like something bad was going to happen again. When I saw Kelsey arguing with Gage on the beach, I knew I had to do something."
"When were you arguing with Gage?" My gaze moved from Dillon to Kelsey.
"After the bonfire. We stopped at Pope Beach to talk. We wanted somewhere private. I guess that was a mistake. I didn't even see Dillon there."
"But I saw her, and I saw Gage grab her arm and yank it hard. Kelsey started crying. It reminded me of Melanie. They left the beach, and I followed them back to your house to make sure Kelsey got home."
I thought about that. "You didn't go in the house," I said to Kelsey. "Your phone was in the backyard."
She nodded. "I wanted to think. I'd just sat down on the deck chair by the bluff when Dillon came around the corner. He scared me to death. But then he was being sweet to me, and I was feeling sad and conflicted. I didn't know what to do about Gage, about my wedding. Dillon said he could make me feel better fast, that we could get high. And I really wanted to feel better. So, I went with him." Kelsey paused. "I guess I dropped my phone in the yard."
"Where did you go?"
"Dillon drove me here. We smoked some weed, and I told him what I was arguing with Gage about. I fell asleep at some point, and when I woke up, I had this on my wrist." She held up her arm. "That's when I realized Dillon was crazy. He was trying to convince me that Gage was a murderer. He wouldn't let me go, Willow. He took my shoes, too, my beautiful five-hundred-dollar heels from Matoni."
"I wanted to make it look like she'd gotten on a boat, so I dropped one of her shoes at the harbor," Dillon said. "I wanted Ben to look for her far away from here. I couldn't let her go, Willow. Gage would have killed her as soon as he found out about her and Carter."
I looked at Kelsey again. "You told Gage about Carter?"
Her gaze widened. "Wait! What? How do you know about Carter?"
"Did you tell Gage that you and Carter hooked up?" I asked, ignoring her question.
"No. God, no! I told Gage I wanted to call off the wedding because it didn't feel right. He was angry. He said we had a lot of money on the line, that it wasn't just about love. We needed to get married for the show. We could divorce later." She paused. "But I told Dillon about Carter. And I said I needed to tell Gage, too, before we got married."