Chapter 24: My Best Friend Wants to Avenge Me

Chapter 24: Chapter 24: My Best Friend Wants to Avenge Me

A streetside café.

Zeke Shaw probably hadn’t expected Madeline Quinn to force a meeting like this, so he was visibly angry when he arrived.

"I understand you’re desperate to find your friend, but this is the wrong way to go about it!" Zeke Shaw’s brow was furrowed, his tone lecturing.

"Then tell me, what is the right way? Should I just wait for the police to crack the case? It’s been so long! What if she’s waiting for someone to save her? Can you imagine how desperate she must feel!" Madeline Quinn was losing control, shouting at Zeke Shaw.

Zeke Shaw’s expression darkened, and he rubbed his brow.

"I understand how you feel..."

"You don’t understand!" Madeline Quinn cut him off.

Zeke Shaw fell silent. He just looked at Madeline Quinn, saying nothing more.

"If I hadn’t reported Cece missing, no one would have. You wouldn’t have even opened a case! She doesn’t have a mother or father anymore. She has nothing! She only has me! If I don’t do something, she’ll truly be... gone." Madeline Quinn’s eyes were red, but she stubbornly clenched her fists.

’I knew she had to be in so much pain right now. So much pain.’

Her body was trembling.

’Madeline, I’m begging you, don’t do anything rash...’ I could only plead with her not to be impulsive, not to... ’Just forget about me. Live your life.’

But Madeline Quinn seemed dead set on finding me.

’Don’t agree to it, Zeke! Don’t agree!’ I screamed, begging him not to give in.

Zeke Shaw was silent for a long time before he finally spoke. "I’m sorry. I don’t know you, and I don’t know Cecilia Caldwell... but from what I’ve heard from Julian Fletcher and his friends, Cecilia wasn’t a good person. They said she was even malicious..."

"That’s bullshit!" Madeline Quinn screamed. "They’re all demons, every last one of them is a bastard! What right do they have to say Cece was a bad person? Who are they to judge! They were the ones who hurt her from start to finish! That Julian Fletcher—he’s a rapist! Aren’t you a cop? Go arrest him! Go on, do it!"

Losing control, Madeline Quinn began shoving Zeke Shaw, crying and screaming for him to go arrest Julian Fletcher.

Zeke Shaw was momentarily at a loss, clearly unsure how to handle such an emotional outburst from a woman.

As Madeline cried, I cried with her. As she frantically shoved Zeke, I desperately wanted to hold her.

But I couldn’t hold her, just as she couldn’t save me.

"Zeke... you’re a cop. Don’t believe that truth lies with the majority. Cece wasn’t like that... I’ll prove it to all of you." Having finally vented, it seemed, Madeline Quinn suddenly grew quiet.

Her quietness was more terrifying than her outburst.

"What are you planning to do?" Zeke asked.

"Tomorrow night, I’m going to wear a red dress and walk past the alley at the end of the street. If one day isn’t enough, I’ll do it for two, then three... Sooner or later, I’ll lure that lunatic out." Madeline Quinn clenched her fists, her breathing ragged.

"What kind of friend... is worth risking your life for?" Zeke sounded frustrated as he stepped into the smoking area and lit a cigarette.

Madeline Quinn gave a weak smile. "You want to know about Cecilia Caldwell? Come with me... I’ll show you who she really was."

Zeke Shaw said nothing and followed her.

I followed too, right behind them.

"Cecilia was a great student. She was always number one in our class."

Madeline Quinn drove Zeke Shaw to Evergreen Gardens.

The place where I was born and raised.

Madeline knew where the spare key to my house was. It had been our sanctuary back in school.

"Cecilia was beautiful, the most beautiful girl in school." Madeline retrieved a key from inside a shoe, unlocked the door, and went inside.

A photograph hung in the entryway—a solo portrait of me from a ballet recital. It was beautiful.

In the picture, I wore a white ballet costume, like a swan with its wings outstretched. I was eighteen that year.

"She is beautiful," Zeke Shaw said, nodding as he looked at the photograph.

"After her parents died in a car crash, their company went bankrupt and was deep in debt. Legally, Cecilia didn’t have to pay it back, but she took the entire settlement from her parents’ death and gave it to the creditors, without keeping a single cent for herself."

Madeline Quinn pulled a box from a drawer. "After she started college, she gave me her scholarship money every year. We donated it all to the children at the local orphanage. She said... ’Kids without parents are so lonely.’"

BANG! Suddenly, the front door was thrown open.

Asher stood in the doorway, breathing heavily, his eyes rimmed with red.

’I was near the door, staring at Asher in shock. Hadn’t the Lancasters taken him away?’

’No, wait... How does he have a key to my house?’

Madeline Quinn stared at Asher in shock as well. "Who... who are you?"

Zeke Shaw reacted instantly, striding forward and pinning Asher against the wall. "What are you doing here?"

"Cece... Cece," he choked out, his voice trembling and hoarse.