Chapter 104

As I hung up the phone with Noah, Andrew was on the phone with his head of security.

“Yes, yes, let them in,” he said. “We need to cooperate. Just make sure that the paparazzi don’t come in with them.”

He let out a frustrated groan as he ended the call.

“The police are here,” he told me. “They’re here to arrest you.”

The color rushed from my face.

“They want to arrestme? Why?”

“I don’t know. What I do know is that the best thing you can do is cooperate with the police and not give them any reason to use force or file any additional charges against you.”

He grabbed me by the shoulders and stared me straight in the eyes.

“Do not worry. The truth will win out.”

I nodded, but I felt like I was going to throw up.

Andrew leaned forward and kissed me once on the lips.

“I don’t want to go back to jail,” I whispered.

“You’re going to be fine,” he whispered back.

A knock at the door startled me, and Andrew squeezed my shoulders.

“Remember, cooperate. Do not resist.”

Andrew answered the door to reveal two burly police officers. For a brief moment, I was reminded of Samuel Romano in his fox mask, but I quickly brushed the memory away.

“Good evening, officers,” Andrew said, his voice level and calm. “How may I help you?”

“Good evening, Your Highness,” the frontmost officer said. “I am Officer Dunnigan, and this is Officer Kibet. We are here for Ms. Crystal Blanchard.”

“Might I ask why?”

“She is currently a suspect in the murder of one Mr. John Brown. I’m afraid that we have to take her into custody.”

Andrew turned towards me. I did not say a word. Instead, I merely stepped up to the officers, faced away from them, and put my hands behind my back for them to handcuff.

“This might pinch a little, ma’am,” Officer Dunnigan said oddly politely as he placed the handcuffs on my wrists.

It did, in fact, pinch, but I still did not say anything. Even as Officer Dunnigan read me my Miranda rights, I stayed silent. I already knew that whatever I said could and would be held against me in a court of law; I wasn’t about to give them that ammunition.

An officer stood on either side of me as we prepared to take the long walk of shame down the drive to where they had parked the squad car at the gate.

Just as the officers were about to escort me outside, Andrew called out, “Officer Dunnigan, may I ask you a question?”

Officer Dunnigan faced Andrew.

“Yes, Your Highness?”

“Why do you think that Crystal killed John Brown in the first place?”

“Your Highness, you know that I am not at liberty to discuss the details of an ongoing investigation.”

Officer Dunnigan exchanged glances with Officer Kibet, who shrugged.

“However, as you are the Alpha King, I might be able to make an exception.”

He cleared his throat.

“As far as we can tell, Ms. Blanchard was the last person to see Mr. Brown alive. According to evidence found at the crime scene, she pressured him into giving false testimony against one Bob Adams. This angered her into committing murder.”

Andrew’s jaw clenched, and the muscles in his neck tensed, but his voice remained even.

“What kind of evidence is that, might I ask?”

“I cannot fully disclose the evidence at this moment, but it did include her fingerprints on the murder weapon, a handgun belonging to Mr. Brown himself.”

My jaw dropped. How did my fingerprints get on that gun? I never even touched it!

I couldn’t find my voice to say anything. My eyes implored Andrew to not believe what they said, to see the truth. Besides the tension in his jaw and neck, his expression was completely unreadable.

“Thank you, Officer Dunnigan, Officer Kibet,” he said, his tone unchanged. “That’s all I needed to know.”

“Her bail is being set at $2,000,000, if you want to know,” Officer Dunnigan said.

“Thank you. I will keep that in mind.”

Andrew did not even look at me. Instead, he stared into the distance, as though deep in thought on some far-off matter. Tears stung my eyes, but I blinked them away.

“Is there anything else, Your Highness?”

Andrew shook his head.

“No, no. Proceed.”

Without so much as a goodbye or any final reassurance from Andrew, the officers led me out the door. Andrew closed it behind us almost as soon as we were outside.

My heart felt as though someone had reached in and started squeezing it. Did Andrew believe what the officers had said? Did he think that I was capable of murder?

I forced myself to walk forward with the officers down the drive.

Of course, Andrew believed the officers over me. I had already gone to prison once for manslaughter, and I never told him the truth about that. Why wouldn’t he think that it was just one small jump from there to actual murder?

Then there was the fact that Bob was his future son-in-law. I should have known that he would have been hesitant to believe that Bob was a criminal. It was too good to be true when he offered to help me prove otherwise.

More disturbingly, though, was the matter of how I got tangled in this mess in the first place. The answer seemed obvious: Bob. Bob must have visited Mr. Brown after I left and killed him with his own gun.

I cringed at the thought. I could not imagine the terror that Bob must have put Mr. Brown through before pulling the trigger. Then again, he seemed to be reserving the true terror for me, so he might have just shot him and gotten it over with.

What I did not understand was how he got my fingerprints on the gun. Perhaps he had a mole inside Ever After Weddings and had gotten them to get a sample of my fingerprints for him, but how did he transfer them from there?

However it happened, a couple things were clear: Bob was more of a diabolical genius than I had ever realized, and I was never getting rid of him.

This realization hit me as we reached the gate. Before we could get into the squad car, a flock of paparazzi crowded us, trying to get snap a picture of me ducking into the back seat.

“Ms. Blanchard! Ms. Blanchard!” a chorus of voices cried out.

“Ms. Blanchard, is it true that you’re being arrested on suspicion of murder?” one man asked.

“Ms. Blanchard, is it true that you killed someone for not agreeing to give false testimony against your ex-boyfriend?” another followed up.

“Ms. Blanchard, is it true that that same ex is now the fiancé of your current boyfriend’s daughter?” a woman prodded. “And that that boyfriend is Alpha King Andrew Dubois?”

“All right, back it up, back it up,” Officer Dunnigan shouted, spreading his arms out as Officer Kibet helped me into the squad car. “There’s nothing to see here.”

I almost hit my head climbing into the car, and Officer Kibet had to buckle my seat belt for me, but we finally succeeded in getting me inside. Officers Dunnigan and Kibet then rushed to the front and took their seats.

After both officers buckled their seat belts, Officer Dunnigan honked the horn at the paparazzi, causing them to scatter.

“Don’t worry, ma’am,” he said, looking at me through the rearview mirror. “We’ll be at the station in no time.”

Yeah,I thought with a silent huff,because that’s my biggest worry right now.