Chapter 138: A woman on a mission

Ashley’s POV

“Why didn’t you tell me sooner?” I asked, my voice barely a whisper now, trembling with the weight of it all. “Why did you keep this from me?”

“I didn’t know what to do,” he said again, and this time his voice cracked, raw and exposed. “I didn’t want to believe it. I didn’t want to think that she could have done something like this, and I didn’t want to hurt you with something that might not even be true. I was hoping… I was hoping that I was wrong, that she was just another victim of the crash, that there was some other explanation.”

“You were hoping I’d just keep playing along, that I’d never find out,” I said bitterly, the words lashing out before I could stop them. I saw him flinch, and a part of me felt satisfaction at the pain in his eyes, even as another part of me hated myself for feeling that way.

“It wasn’t like that,” he said softly, desperately, and I could hear the truth in his voice, the rawness of his emotions, but I didn’t know if I could believe him anymo