“Your former fiancé?” he asked in surprise.

“One and the same. He was my best friend growing up, but now I’m pretty sure my father used him to keep tabs on me. He couldn’t be bothered to watch me himself.” I released a short laugh. “I didn’t understand why my father didn’t love me anymore, so I decided I must be unlovable.”

“Carly.”

I couldn’t bring myself to look at him. “When I left for school, I swore I was never going back. That I was leaving forever. I went out east and got a college degree and a master’s in elementary education. But my father had left his mark on me, and I never really let myself get close to anyone. So when Jake called me and begged me to come back to Dallas, I went. Mostly because I was lonely, and I’d never really put down roots anywhere else.”

“You started datin’ him?” he asked, his voice tight.

“No,” I said, then took a second to gather my thoughts. “No, I got a job at my old private school and fell in love with a new batch of students every year. It felt safe. I knew they were leaving me, so it made it easier to get close to them.” I shook my head. “That sounds pathetic.”

“No. Believe it or not, I can relate. My father manipulated everyone in this town, including my friends. I never trusted anyone.”

“What about Max?” I asked, glancing at him. “Did you trust him?”

“Max was the only one I could trust. Until I broke away from my father.” He sat up straighter. “You said men wanted you for your inheritance, so there must have been men in your life.”

“I dated,” I admitted. “I had a few semiserious relationships, but they all ended the same way. With the guy falling all over himself to meet my father. I’d just ended the last one—a guy I was sure was different—until I found out he wasn’t. So I did what I always did and cried on Jake’s shoulder. He was between his many girlfriends, and we went out and got drunk, and the next thing I knew he proposed.”

“You weren’t even datin’?”

“We hadn’t even kissed at that point.”

“But you said yes?”

I sighed, feeling like a fool. “We were friends and I really wanted to have a family someday. I figured I knew what I was getting with Jake. I could trust him.” Releasing a bitter laugh, I said, “Boy was I wrong.” When he didn’t respond, I added, “Jake convinced me that the best component of a relationship was friendship. That we would eventually fall in love and we’d grow old together as best friends. That we’d raise our kids in a stable environment, and not the way we’d been raised.”

When he didn’t comment, I said, “You must think I’m an idiot.”

“No,” he said. “Quite the opposite. So why did you run? What happened?”

“The rehearsal dinner was at my father’s house, and after the meal, Jake and my father wandered upstairs. I wondered what was taking them so long, so I went to find them.” I waited for the tears to come, but my eyes remained remarkably dry. “They were in my father’s upstairs study, smoking cigars and discussing the timeline of my upcoming accident. My father suggested that it should happen a few months after the wedding—not too soon for people to get suspicious, but not long enough for Jake to lose his nerve. To his credit, Jake said he thought it should be later.” My throat tightened. “At least until I’d had a baby or two to preserve the family lineage. Otherwise, my father’s partners might protest.”

“What the fuck, Carly?” he asked, pulling his hand from mine and gripping the steering wheel so tightly it made a screeching sound. His outrage rose with every word. “Why would they kill you? Why not have the bastard divorce you? Or better yet, not marry you at all. Just hand it over to the fucker, since it sounds like you never wanted the money anyway?”

“I’ve since found out that my father’s part of an international crime syndicate called the Hardshaw Group. Three men run it, all successful businessmen in their own right. They made some archaic rule that their positions can only be handed down to blood. If the inheriting biological child dies, then the spouse can take over. And since he must have realized that I didn’t have the stomach for it, he needed a son-in-law he could trust. He’d been grooming Jake for years, and Jake was just biding his time until I was weak enough to marry someone I didn’t love. I suspect he paid a few of the jerks I’d dated to make sure I was primed and desperate enough to accept his proposal.”

He was silent for a long stretch before he said in a calmer tone, “So you overheard them then ran?”

“Yeah. I went to a friend Jake didn’t know about and stayed with him for the weekend while I tried to figure out what to do. Austin and I both decided the best thing I could do was run. He gave me his mother’s old car, and I took off toward Arkansas, where my car promptly died outside of a town called Henryetta. I was fortunate that two women found me and took me in. Rose gave me a job and let me stay at her house. The last month I took care of her dying sister.”

“Jesus, Carly. I feel like an ass over the way I treated you with Hank. You’re more qualified to take care of him than I am.”

I shook my head. “No. Violet was dying from leukemia. There weren’t any wounds to take care of, and she spent most of her last days sleeping.” Tears streaked down my cheeks. “I only knew her two months, but her death ripped my heart out.”

“Is that why you left?” he asked.

I wiped the tears from my face. “No. I found out that someone from Hardshaw had discovered I was there. So I left, because I don’t have any evidence implicating my father or Jake, and Hardshaw’s too big and powerful for one person to fight. I can’t get justice for my mother or for me, but I can get justice for Seth.”

“You don’t have to find justice for Seth alone. I loved that boy. I want to make his killers pay for his death as much or more than you do.” Silence lingered between us for a moment. Then he said, “You know more about his murder than you’ve let on.”

It was time to tell him.

“I do,” I admitted.

He shot me a glance.

“You’ve suspected,” I said. “Don’t look so surprised.”

“I’m surprised you’re tellin’ me is all. Hank knows what you saw. That’s why you went to see him in the hospital.”

“Seth asked me to give him a message and warned me not to tell the sheriff. I was hoping Hank would know who to turn to for help.”

“He didn’t suggest me?” he asked, his voice tight.

“No, but I think part of it was to protect you.”

“But most of it was because he doesn’t trust me.”

We both knew he was right.

“What about you?” he asked. “Do you trust me?”

“I’m about to tell you what I saw. I think that’s answer enough.” And I did. I told him about waking up and seeing the three men. About setting off my car alarm and watching, helpless, as that man shot Seth and then took off with the others in the red truck. About running out and finding Seth bleeding to death. Listening to Seth’s last words. Sending Max to find the gun and key fob only to learn they were missing. But I held back the numbers on Seth’s hand, because it might make him change his mind about going to Ewing. If his source knew something, I wasn’t going to give Wyatt a reason to cancel.