"Why do you have my medical file?" Lee held up the papers in question, his lips pulled down into a tight line. Sebastian reached for them again, but Lee wasn't having any of it. He flipped through the pages again, scanning over the documents. "What's the purpose of having this?"

"It's nothing—"

"Sebastian," I interrupted. "If it has something to do with Lee, he should know. We can't keep things hidden from each other if we want to work together."

Sebastian fidgeted with his hands and his eyes flicked toward the front door, as if he was thinking about escaping. This was unusual. Sebastian was generally the essence of calm. He must have found something that really concerned him.

"What is it...?" I asked cautiously.

Sebastian opened and closed his mouth a few times, as if he couldn't decide whether to tell me or not. I thought about sending Lee and Henley out of the room, but there was no point. We all needed the same information. Unless this wasn't about my mother? If not, then what could it be about?

"First I need to explain things," Sebastian finally said. "Sometimes when I'm studying I go through my father's old files. He keeps records of all his old cases and the verdicts, so I like to go through them and see how he presented the evidence and how he got the jury to come to the conclusion they did. Well a while back, I came across Lee's medical file hidden away in one a file for one of the cases."

"What case?" Lee asked.

"The case isn't important. The fact the file was hid within it is. Why would my father have a copy? For what purpose? He didn't have any reason to have Lee's medical file. There was never a case for Lee with the accident."

"Maybe it was in case the city wanted to sue for property damage?" Lee guessed.

Sebastian nodded. "I thought about that... which brought up an entirely different problem."

"What problem?" I asked.

"Lee's accident... what if it wasn't an accident?"

His words sent a cold rush down my spine. What had he found? Sebastian wouldn't ask that if there wasn't something to base it off of.

Lee, on the other hand, laughed bitterly. "Of course it wasn't an accident. I purposely crashed that car."

"Exactly," Sebastian said. "You crashed that car."

"Yes."

"Did you ever look at that accident report?"

"No."

"Did you ever look at your medical report?"

"No," Lee answered slowly. "What are you getting at?"

Sebastian gestured for the file and Lee handed it over. I stepped closer so I could see it as Sebastian flipped back to the front page and dragged his finger across it. Admit type. Type of stay. Length of stay. Charges. Payers. He stopped when he came to emergency codes. "Pedestrian motor vehicle traffic accident due to impairment; frontal collision," he read out loud.

"What's wrong with that?" Lee asked.

"Pedestrian. That means you were walking on the road at the time of the accident."

Lee took the paper back from Sebastian and reread it. "What? That's impossible. I was in the car when I crashed it. I didn't get out...? Did I?"

"Someone faked the accident report," I said, my mouth feeling dry.

Henley looked at me, her eyes wide. It could only be one person. But why would she do that? What benefit could come out of that?

"No, the report isn't fake. The injuries Lee received are congruent to a frontal collision with a car. You never thought that was strange, Lee? Trauma to the lower leg, the upper thigh, and the shoulders. If you think about it, it's clear you were hit by a car."

"But I didn't get hit by a car," Lee protested. "I remember clearly getting into a random car and going as fast as I could into that tree. I was in the car."

I clenched my fist, trying not to let his words bother me. An image of Lee flying into that tree... I couldn't shake it from my mind. After a second I felt Henley's hand sneak its way into mine.

"Your BAC was at .20. You could have blacked out— multiple times. When your accident first happened, I didn't think twice about your injuries. I'm a lawyer, not a doctor. I didn't know what could cause what. But I always thought your situation was too perfect. How could you have stolen someone's car, crashed it, and gotten away without anything? Not even a citation? Yes, mental health can result in a non-sentence, but what about property fees? Who was the owner of that car? They didn't press charges. They didn't do anything. Why is that?"

Henley ripped her hand out of mine and I turned to look at her. She was staring at Sebastian, her face devoid of color. Her arms locked up in their position at her sides, where she gripped the bottom of her shirt.

"So when I found that medical record, I went digging a little further and found an odd transaction in my father's account statements. Over twenty grand to a random account at a bank in Poughkeepsie. One day after the accident. And it wasn't hard to find a name for that account, either."

"So they paid the person off to not make an insurance claim?" I asked, missing the point of his statement. That was a common thing to do. Even more common when you could afford to replace the whole car with no problem.

"There was an insurance claim, Bennett. And there was a prosecution. My father was on that case."

"No, there wasn't. Lee didn't even have to go to court," I pointed out, feeling frustrated.

Sebastian turned to Henley, but didn't meet her eyes. Instead, he focused on her feet and spoke quietly. "I thought it was strange he would take on your brother's case. But seeing as how Brandon was a tool in their plan to keep Lee out of trouble, it makes sense now. I'm sorry, Henley. I couldn't tell you. At first I wasn't sure, but when I realized what happened, I couldn't tell you. Not with everything else going on."

Henley stared at Sebastian, her face blank. "...Is that why you told me never to mention my brother to Bennett?"

"Yes."

"You knew even when you promised you'd tell me if you found out anything?" Her voice came out sharp and clear, despite her shoulders staring to quiver.

"Yes."

"And my brother, who had to be in that jail cell for almost a year and struggled just as much as I did on my own, is completely innocent? You knew that?"

I was the last person to realize what was going on. Sebastian's words rang in my ears. He was a tool in their plan. He? Henley's brother? Brandon was a scapegoat for Lee? What were odds that it was Henley's brother? It couldn't be. If it were true, my mother ruined an innocent bystander's life permanently.

Is that really so surprising? a voice in my head asked cruelly.

"Henley, I truly am sorry," Sebastian said again, breaking me from my thoughts.

Once again I turned to Henley. Her shoulders heaved as her breathing increased. She inhaled and exhaled, sharp and quick, almost as if she was hyperventilating. Tears pooled at the corner of her eyes and she blinked rapidly, but she couldn't stop a few from falling on her cheeks.

"I..." She started, her voice catching in her throat. She resembled an animal trapped, unable to find an escape route, just stuck and scared.

I made to move toward her, but stopped myself. Whether I was involved or not, this was partially my fault. My mother put Brandon behind bars. For something Lee did. My family did this to her family. Did I have a right to console her?

"I'm going to the police station," Lee announced, striding across the living room and heading to the stairs.

I moved forward to stop him, but Henley beat me to it. Her hand shot out, gripping him by the wrist and halting him. "No."

Lee tried to gently pry her hand off him. "I can't let this go. This is my fault!"

"I'm so mad. I'm so mad," Henley repeated, the tears steaming from her eyes now. "I can't even think straight right now. So don't go anywhere."

"Henley," I said gently.

Her eyes met mine and her jaw clenched, her eyebrows set in a way that represented her anger in a way words couldn't. "It's not your fault. But I'm so mad. I don't know what to do. I can't think, I can't—"

"It's okay," I told her, opening my arms.

She was in them in less than a second, clinging to me so tightly the air was knocked out of my lungs. Her entire body trembled and I cupped the back of her head, softly stroking her hair. I hoped my body felt sturdier than my feelings at the moment. On the inside, I was shaking too. But I wanted to be strong enough to calm her, even if just a little.

Sebastian sat on the couch, dropping his head onto his hands, curled in on himself. Lee stared out the window toward the lake, his posture impossibly still. We were all disconcerted. Maybe this was why Sebastian had wanted to speak to me alone. Maybe there could have been a better way to tell Henley if we thought it out more.

Or would we have kept it a secret? I wasn't sure. Maybe it was best to put it out in the open like this. We would have to deal with the consequences.

But that could wait, for now, it was about Henley. And Brandon. What they wanted was the most important thing now. I had to do everything I could for them.

Soon Henley's breathing returned to normal and she let out a soft sigh. I pulled back a little and she looked up at me, her eyes rimmed with red. Her cheeks flushed and I leaned down and kissed her forehead, bringing my hand up to gently wipe away the wetness under her eyes.

"You don't have to calm down if you don't want to," I told her.

"I'm okay," she answered, pressing her forehead into my shoulder. "Sorry."

"Don't be. You have every right to be angry."

She took a step back, drying her eyes with the back of her sleeve. "I know. I'm still really pissed off. My mind is a huge mess right now. I'm trying to choose my words carefully."

Lee wandered back over to us, his eyes red as well. "Henley, I'm so sorry. I don't know what to say."

"It's not your fault. I know it's not your fault. But I don't want to look at you right now. I don't want to look at Sebastian. I don't want to look at you either, Bennett."

My stomach hardened. "I can drive you home."

"I don't want to go home. How am I supposed to face Brandon?"

Lee ran a hand through his hair, pacing. "The only thing we can do is go to the police. I'll admit to everything. I'm sure we can find evidence. I don't care if I go to jail. I can't believe someone suffered in my stead."

"You can't," I said quickly. This situation was more serious than that. It didn't take a lawyer to realize how bad this was.

"It's not up to you Bennett."

"I'm not letting you go to jail."

"Bennett. Brandon is Henley's brother! Even if it was involuntarily, we did that to him! No, I did that to him!"

"You're my brother! And you've had a difficult time too!" I shouted.

"All I've done is ruin multiple peoples' lives," Lee said softly.

I felt nauseous. Nothing about this was right. It was Henley who should be upset now, not me. It was Henley who should be shouting, not me. It was Henley who I should have been protecting, not Lee. It felt like the room was spinning. Everything was blurry.

I reached out for something to steady myself, but nothing was there.

"Bennett!" I heard Henley call before I felt the world tilt to the right and I hit the floor.