Page 4 of What They'll Say About Us

"I don't want to get entangled in my past." I drew in a deep breath and let it out, knowing they needed more from me. "Paige and I were not friends when she died. We were rivals, maybe even enemies. We had competed for the same role in the play. She got it. I didn't. We had some words about that. A lot of people heard that argument. Paige thought I was being jealous and petty. I thought she was acting full of herself. It was stupid college girl drama, but after she died, I felt horrible. I wished I could have taken it all back."

"Did you get the part after she died?" Morgan asked.

"Yes. And that made it worse. I tried to turn it down, but we were opening in two weeks, and I was the only one who knew the part. Everyone told me that I needed to step up. I had to do it. So, I did. But I didn't feel good about it. And I know some of Paige's friends thought I was cold and heartless for taking her part, especially since I'd told her she didn't deserve it."

"Someone was going to take it," Cassidy put in.

"Because of our drama, there were murmurings that suggested I'd killed her to get the part."

"I'm sure no one actually believed that," Morgan said.

"Maybe. Maybe not. But I don't want to go back there."

"That's fair," Cassidy said. "I understand your reservations now."

Despite Cassidy's words, I knew I was letting them down, and it wasn't only them I was disappointing; it was also myself. Why was I letting my past dictate my future?

Morgan pulled out her phone, reading her screen with a slowly increasing frown.

"What?" I asked. "What's the problem now?"

"I set alerts for comments on our keynote," Morgan replied, looking up with concern in her gaze. "As I suspected, people are talking about the next case, about whether we're going to look into the death of the woman you went to school with."

"I knew this was going to happen. As soon as Alina opened her mouth, I knew it."

"It's up to you," Morgan said. "If we do this, we do it together. This won't be all on you, Tessa."

"It will be on me because I have the personal connections. I'm the one who will have to take the lead. I'm just afraid…"

"Afraid of what exactly?" Morgan asked.

"I'm afraid that Alina believes her sister's killer is me, and that her challenge is to put me on the hot seat."

"If that's true," Cassidy said, "then we have to do this. We have to find out if this was murder, and if it was, who did it? We need to control the narrative that Alina started. If we don't, who knows where it will go? Who knows if someone else will try to implicate you?"

"You're right, but I feel like I'm about to step onto a runaway train."

"Does that mean we're doing it?" Morgan asked.

I slowly nodded. "I guess we are. This case is perfect for the podcast, and I'm the right person to take the audience into the story."

"Should we start by calling Alina?" Morgan suggested.

"Not yet," I replied. "She started this, but I need to review what happened before I talk to her, because I don't trust her motives. And while she's been thinking about this for nine years, I haven't thought about Paige MacIntyre since the day I left school. This is the first time I've been back to Chicago since graduation. I've avoided every invitation to weddings or baby showers of friends who still live here. I've even turned down my aunt's invitations to come for a holiday when my dad passed through town. I never wanted to come back, but this convention, our headlining keynote was too good to pass up." I drew in a breath. "Let's go downstairs. There are some workshops we need to attend. We'll regroup later. I need a minute before I press rewind on my life."

Cassidy smiled. "Sounds good. But you know you're going to run into questions downstairs."

"That's fine. We'll tell people that our announcement is coming tonight, generate some interest before we actually commit. That should increase the traffic to our socials."

"That's the Tessa we know and love," Morgan said with a laugh. "Always thinking about how to make things bigger and better."

I smiled back at them, but I wasn't thinking about the podcast right now. I was thinking about who I used to be, and how that girl had made a lot of mistakes that might be about to go public.

Chapter Two

Going downstairs felt like a mistake, too. As soon as I entered the convention area, I was stopped by multiple people asking about the unsolved murder mentioned in the Q&A. My response became a short, repeated phrase. "We'll be posting about that tonight. Stay tuned!"

By noon, I was feeling more than a little stressed, and I skipped out on the banquet lunch to take a walk outside.