He Killed Me Then Loved Me novel · Chapter 3 of 24

Chapter 3: A Clean Cut

At the hospital Everard hugs Hallie too long and the police say the brake line was cut; Phillip threatens to blame her unless she explains, and she offers one true answer a day for a month.

The ambulance took Phillip, and a police car took me.

I sat in a plastic chair in the emergency room with a paper bandage on each palm and a blanket somebody had put on my shoulders.

I missed the SAT. The doors had opened at 7:30 and I was not there.

I let myself mind that for a moment. Then I stopped, because I was alive and Phillip was alive and two hundred people were alive.

At nine the glass doors slid apart and Everard Chichester came through them at a run.

His wife walked behind him. Lucille did not run.

"Hallie!" Everard said.

He crossed the room and pulled me out of the chair into his arms.

He held me hard. His arms were tight around my ribs, and he held on longer than he ever had.

"Thank God," he said into my hair. "Thank God you're all right."

"I'm fine, Mr. Chichester."

"Everard. How many times." He leaned back and held my face in both hands. His eyes were wet. "You pulled my son out of a burning car."

"It wasn't burning yet."

"You are the bravest girl I know."

He had said kind things to me for seven years, and I had believed every one.

I stood in his hands and felt, for no reason I could name, that I wanted him to let go.

Lucille stood a step behind him in a cream coat. Her face did not move at all.

"You were very lucky to be standing where you were," she said.

"I wasn't lucky. I was early."

"So I'm told." She looked at my bandaged hands. "The police would like a word with all of us."

A police officer walked up with a notepad. He was tall and tired, and he spoke to Everard first.

"Mr. Chichester, the tow yard has already looked at the car. I wanted you to hear it from me."

"Hear what?" Everard said.

"The brake line was cut. It was a clean cut, not a break."

Lucille's fingers closed on her purse strap.

Everard took one step back. His mouth fell open in perfect surprise.

"Cut? Who would cut my son's brakes?"

"That's what we're trying to find out."

"My mechanic checked that car himself last night," Everard said. "He's been with us for twenty years."

"We'll want to talk to him."

"Of course. Anything you need. I'll have him call you this morning."

"Please don't call him," I said.

Everyone turned to look at me.

My heart thumped. "If you call him first, he knows they're coming."

The officer studied me. "She's right," he said slowly. "Let us make the first call."

Everard smiled at me. It was a warm smile, and it went all the way up to his eyes.

"Sharp as ever," he said. "That's why we sent you to that school."

"Hallie," the officer said, "I'd like to ask how you knew about the brakes."

I had prepared for this. I had thought about it the whole bus ride and all the way through the bandaging.

"I didn't know," I said. "I saw the car come into the lot too fast and Phillip looked scared. I shouted the first thing I could think of."

"You told him they were cut."

"I told him not to drive it. Cut brakes was the worst thing I could think of, and it happened to be true."

The officer wrote that down.

It was a poor lie, and everyone who heard it knew that.

Lucille did not say anything. Everard squeezed my shoulder and said I must be exhausted.

They moved me to the third floor, where Phillip had a private room and a bandage across his forehead.

The doctor said he had a mild concussion, three stitches and a cracked rib.

Phillip was awake.

Everard went in first. Lucille followed him, and the door closed behind them.

I stood in the hallway and leaned my head against the wall.

Ten minutes later the door opened and they came out.

"He's asking for you," Everard said. "Go ahead, sweetheart. Don't tire him."

I went in.

The room was white and quiet. Phillip lay propped on three pillows with an IV in his arm.

He watched me shut the door.

"Sit down," he said.

"I'll stand."

"Sit down, Hallie."

He had never said my name without a sneer, and he still didn't sound kind. He sounded tired and scared.

I sat on the very edge of the visitor's chair.

"The brake line was cut," he said. "You knew that before I started the engine."

"I didn't."

"You told me in front of two hundred people, and you were right to the second. Tell me how."

"I told the officer."

"You told him a lie. I was there." His eyes were steady. "Tell me the truth, or I will tell my father and the police that you cut them yourself."

My mouth went dry.

He meant it. I could see he meant it.

I had spent seven years refusing to bend to him. I had died under his car, and I was not going to bend now.

"If I'd cut your brakes," I said, "I would have let you drive."

He did not blink.

"Here's what I'll do," I said. "I'll answer one true question a day. You leave me and my friends and my things alone. You don't smash anything, you don't send anyone to freeze me out, and you don't touch my life."

"One question a day for how long?"

"A month."

Phillip looked at me for a very long time.

"A month," he said.

← Chapter 2 · All chapters · Chapter 4 →

Want to keep talking to characters like these? Chat with AI romance characters: AI Boyfriend · AI Girlfriend · Dark Romance · Fantasy Romance · BL (Boys’ Love) · Billionaire Boyfriend · Mafia Boyfriend · Possessive Boyfriend · Hockey Boyfriend · Older Boyfriend · K-Drama Boyfriend · Anime Boyfriend · Vampire Boyfriend · Werewolf Boyfriend · Demon Boyfriend · Fae Romance · GL (Girls’ Love) · Anime Girlfriend · Goth & Alt Girlfriend · Gamer Girlfriend · Tsundere Girlfriend · Fantasy Girlfriend