Page 112 of The Unknown

“Stop what?” she says.

“See?” I tell Ronan. “This is her way of getting you to confess. And she won’t quit until you do.”

Ronan leans back in his chair, thumbs over his closed eyelids. A low moan escapes his lips. “I didn’t—”

“Didn’t do what?” I say when he fails to finish the sentence.

“It wasn’t what you— What I mean is—”

He starts listing again. Worried he’s about to faint, I clap my hands in front of his face and say, “Ronan, did you do something that caused Elise to kill herself?”

“She wasn’t supposed to know!” he snaps. “None of them were.”

“So you did it to others, too?”

Ronan lowers his head. “Yes.”

“How many?” I say.

“I’m not sure,” Ronan says. That he can’t even remember leaves me sickened and stunned. Those feelings only get worse when he adds, “Seven or eight.”

Now I start to sway. It’s more than we thought. Holy fuck.

“It was just harmless fun,” Ronan says. “If I’d known it would fuck Elise up so badly, I never would have done it.”

Violet-as-Daisy tilts her head at Ronan, curious. “Did you hurt someone?”

Ronan says nothing at first. Just stares. At his hands. At the table. Then, eventually, at me.

“Yes,” he says, sighing out the word.

I exhale, relieved it’s over. Ronan confessed and Violet can stop pretending to be Daisy. I half expect Brad or Loretta to emerge from behind the furniture and yell,Cut!But Violet doesn’t instantly return to her former self. She remains Daisy, a strange glint in her eyes as she leans across the table and says, “I hurt people, too.”

The wobbly feeling returns.

Violet wouldn’t say that.

She’d be content with that single, simple yes.

But she doesn’t look content, still leaning forward and fixing Ronan with an angry squint.

“You need to say it,” I tell him, knowing that’s what Violet really wants. A full confession caught on tape. Unless she’s no longer Violet. Then all bets are off.

“What do you mean?” Ronan’s face is pale, the skin on his forehead shining with stress sweat.

“State specifically what you did and who you did it to.”

“Why?”

I will myself not to look at the camera’s hiding spot for fear I’ll give it away. “Because this won’t stop until you do.”

Ronan wipes his brow, thinking it over. His eyes open and close in a rapid-fire blink as he makes his decision.

“No,” he says. “Fuck that. I’ve said enough. I’m done talking.”

“I don’t think you are,” Violet says, still not sounding like herself.

Or quite looking like it.