She Jumped Into His Pool and Blamed Me, So I Left Him novel · Chapter 9 of 24

Chapter 9: What Bennett Told Her

Mitchell put a blanket around Lila's shoulders and sat her on the stool by the counter.

I stayed in the doorway with my arms crossed.

I did not offer her tea.

"How did you get here?" Mitchell asked.

"I walked the beach." Lila's teeth clicked. "Around the rocks, so the gate cameras wouldn't see me."

"Why?"

"Because he'll check my phone." She held it up in a shaking hand. "I left it on, in my room. It's a different one."

It was a cheap gray phone with a cracked corner.

She put it on the counter next to the water glass Mitchell gave her, and she looked at me.

"Is it true?" she said again. "That you told his mother to send me away?"

"No."

"You said I was a charity case."

"I said you were twenty-seven and called yourself a baby." My voice stayed level. "That's the worst thing I ever said about you. I said it at lunch, with you sitting there."

She stared at the water.

"He told me you said it in the kitchen after I left the room," she said. "That you said I was a stray his family kept because they felt bad. That you wanted his mother to move my mom out of the care home so I'd have to leave."

"I never said any of that."

"He cried when he told me." A tear ran down her face, and this time nobody was filming. "He said he couldn't stand to see me hurt."

I did not move.

I had seen that face on Bennett, too, in the dark, with his head against my collarbone.

"What did he ask you to do?" Mitchell said.

She looked at him, startled, and I saw she had forgotten he was there.

"He said I should show everyone what she's really like," she said slowly. "He said people had to see it or no one would believe me. He said if I stood by her at the rail at eight, I'd only have to give the signal and he'd take care of the rest."

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