Chapter 11 The Confession
425 Words
They let me into the room with him.
Elias was sitting with his head in his hands. Hands cuffed.
When he heard the door he looked up.
His eyes were red.
“You don’t have to be here,” he said immediately.
“Shut up,” I said. And sat down across from him.
The detective stepped out. “I’ll give you five.”
Silence.
Just the buzz of the recorder.
“I didn’t know,” he said first. “I swear to you. If I had known she was in my car I never would have—”
“Stop.”
He stopped.
“Lila called me that night,” I said. “At 1:40am. I was asleep. I didn’t answer.”
I pulled out my phone. Showed him the missed call.
“She texted after. _‘Can you come get me? I’m scared. He’s here.’_”
Elias closed his eyes.
“He,” I repeated. “My dad.”
Understanding hit him like a punch.
“Oh God.”
“She was at that bar because of him,” I said. My voice was flat. “He’d been drinking. She texted you because you were her friend from high school. Because you lived 10 minutes away. Because she was terrified.”
Elias was shaking.
“She got in my car,” he whispered. “She was crying. She said ‘please just drive, Elias, please don’t let him find me.’
And I was drunk. And I was mad at my ex. And I told her ‘fine, get in.’
I thought I was helping.”
Tears were falling down his face now.
“I didn’t see the other car. I swerved because I thought I saw headlights behind us. I thought it was him.
I killed her trying to save her from him.”
He looked at me. Completely broken.
“I’ve spent three years thinking I ran because I was a coward.
But the truth is worse. I ran because I was ashamed that I failed her.
I was supposed to keep her safe and I didn’t.”
I reached across the table.
Didn’t touch his hands. Just set Lila’s keychain down between us.
“She trusted you,” I said.
“I know.”
“She asked you for help.”
“I know.”
“And you came.”
He nodded, choking on a sob.
“And you’re here now.”
_For the first time in three years, we were both telling the truth about the night Lila died._
- Writer
