Chapter 22: Dillon's Confession

Gillian's POV

I handed Dillon the microphone and stepped back to the edge of the stage.

He walked up the three steps with his hands shaking.

Four hundred faces turned to follow him.

Under the white lights he looked younger than he had on the pavement, and a good deal more tired.

"My name is Dillon Lowry," he said.

His voice cracked on the first word. He cleared his throat and started again.

"Eleven years ago tonight, I was twenty years old. I drove Chloe's mother and father home from my birthday dinner."

Nobody moved.

"We were on Lake Shore Road, after dark. My phone lit up. I looked down."

He stopped and swallowed.

"I looked at it for one second. The car went through the rail."

At table two, a woman put her hand over her mouth.

"They died. I didn't. I had a cut through my eyebrow." He touched the pale scar. "I told everyone it was a bike."

"My father's firm sealed the report. My mother told me to keep quiet, and I did. I was a coward, and then I was a habit."

He looked across the room at table four.

Sylvia sat there in her black coat, and she did not look away.

"I'm not saying this so you'll feel sorry for me," Dillon said. "I'm saying it so you'll know what it cost, and who collected."

At table one, Chloe's smile was frozen in place.

"Five years ago, someone sent Chloe the sealed file.

"She came to me crying. She said she didn't want to hurt me. She said she only wanted me close.

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