Red Herring ✔️

58. Ding, Dong! The Witch Is Dead

Sighing with frustration, Christian rested his forehead in his hand. "You're not making yourself sound any better, pal." In the shrouded light of the fading sun, she could see the weariness that shadowed his face. She felt the same fatigue that made her limbs feel like dead weight. A curious anxiety counteracted the drowsiness to keep her up at night. She didn't want to do this much longer. She didn't know if she could.

Lonny sucked in a deep breath and forged ahead, plunging in. "That night - the one where Meredith went missing - I'm home alone studying when I get a call from her phone. Meredith's phone," he clarified, speaking volumes to the validity of their engagement. "Doesn't quite sound like her, but she says she needs me to come over right away. Since school started, I hadn't really seen her. The internship was over and with school...and everything...yeah, anyways. It was pretty unlike her to ask that so of course, I went over. Now before, if I ever came over, Meredith would park her car on the street and I would pull into the garage to go in the house that way. It insured the two one could see me or my face."

Sounds complicated sleeping with a much older woman.

"When I get there, I don't see Meredith's car, Mary Anne is home, and I see Demi's car parked on the street in front of the house. My first thought is that my cover is blown. Demi knows. And I could assume Mary Anne found out too."

"So it's true. You had an affair with Meredith McCormick," christian stated. It wasn't a question.

Almost unashamedly, Lonny nodded. "I did. It started this summer. We spent a lot of time together. Instead of her secretary traveling with her for the job, Meredith would take me. She said that way, I would get the most experience."

"Some kind of experience," Jason commented snidely.

Scrunching his face at him, Lonny sneered, "Shut up, Woo."

"Let him finish," Christian corrected.

"Oh, I'm sure he did plenty of that," Ailene chimed in, unwilling to let it drop. Despite their apparent relationship, Ailene didn't seem too happy with her love muffin.

Mazie decided to humble her if only because she didn't particularly like Ailene. "You're the one sleeping with him now. Those your insecurities speaking up?"

From his seated position, Christian curled his hand around the back of her knee as if to say "Great dig, hot stuff." No one else would know from the look on his face.

Predictably, Ailene didn't have a quick witted comeback for that. Her sharp tongue grew dull.

Dragging the back of his hand underneath his nose trickling blood, Lonny took that as his cue to continue before anyone else could make a joke at his expense. "That's when it started. I don't even know how, but once it started, it didn't stop. She was persistent...and older. Even if I wanted to stop, I don't think I would have known how. It's not like she threatened to tell anyone. She just...we got in so deep. It didn't really seem like there was a way out." A faraway look crossed his face, dragging his attention into the past. "Yeah, so, you can imagine my surprise when I pull up to her house and see all those cars."

"I'm hoping you're getting to the point," Christian jutted in sarcastically.

Biting his tongue, Lonny dejectedly answered, "I'm being thorough. In the end, I think you'l appreciate that. I knew I was caught and I thought I could contain the issue better if Meredith helped convince Demi not to tell anyone. A lot was on the line. Meredith could get in a lot of trouble. I could lose college scholarships if they found out. So I go inside and the very first thing I see is Demi helping Mary Anne roll up this massive rug in the living room Demi is so out of it, not herself at all and she won't even look at me. Mary Anne is looking up at me like she hates me. Meredith is nowhere to be found and there's a bunch of wet towels on the ground and they are stained red. I'll let you deduce what that probably was."