My phone vibrated, causing me to jolt out of my dozing. I blindly searched around my bed until my hand landed on it and I looked at the screen, surprised to see a picture in the preview message. Sliding it open, I was even more surprised to see it was a selfie of Bennett. Since when did Bennett take selfies, let alone send them to me? Propping myself up on my elbows, I zoomed in, realizing he was sitting in what I assumed to be his new car. Cara had kept true to her promise and brought Bennett to the car dealership to buy a new car and had picked him up earlier.

How do I look? Bennett captioned it.

I smiled a little, but still felt like rolling my eyes.

As I started typing a response, another text popped up, this one from Henry. I clicked over to it, a little surprised. Henry rarely texted me these days. I assumed he was busy with Lee.

I need help, ASAP. Meet me at your door in thirty seconds.

Now fully sitting up on my bed, I stared at the text for one second longer, then scrambled to get my shoes on and run downstairs. What in the world did Henry need help with? Brandon was in the kitchen cooking lunch and gave me a quizzical look as I shot by and opened my front door. Lee's Maserati was in my driveway and Henry climbed out of the driver's seat, hurrying over to the passenger's side. I watched as he wrapped his arms around Lee, helping him out of the car.

When Henry buckled under Lee's larger frame, it broke me out of my daze, and I hurried down to help. "What's wrong?"

"His mother—" Henry began bitterly, but Lee cut him off.

"I fell, it's no big deal." The grimace of pain on his face as he tried to step away from Henry told me that it was, indeed, a big deal.

I wrapped an arm around Lee's waist, taking on half of his weight as Henry did the same on the other side. Together we ushered Lee up the steps and into the house and whether Lee wanted to admit he was hurt or not, he must have been hurt badly, because he was relying on Henry and myself to carry most of his weight, whether he was aware of it or not.

Brandon poked his head out of the kitchen and saw Henry and I struggling with Lee. Immediately he threw his spatula in the direction I hoped was the sink and came over to us, easily picking Lee up off his feet. Startled, Lee wrapped his arms around my brother's neck and I choked back at laugh because it seriously looked like Lee was a princess in his knight in shining armor's arms. However, it wasn't the time to laugh.

My brother carried Lee into the living room and I started to follow, pausing when I realized Henry hadn't moved. "What's wrong?" I asked him.

Henry jumped a little, his eyes snapping to mine. "Huh? Nothing. Well not nothing. Mrs. Calloway is what's wrong."

A cold shiver ran through my body. "What did she do to Lee?"

"She didn't do anything," Lee answered, his face flushed, probably due to the treatment my brother had given him. "It was my fault."

Henry bristled. "Lee."

"What happened?" Brandon asked. "Why is Lee injured? Is it because of her?"

"No!" Lee protested, shaking his head repeatedly. "It wasn't... I... I fell down the stairs. I was distracted— it wasn't her fault."

"Fell down the stairs?" I repeated, horror dawning on me. "No way."

Lee's wild eyes turned to me. "It's not what you're thinking! She didn't do anything!"

"Lee!"

We all flinched, not expecting such an angry cry to come from such a passive man. I think this was the first time I'd ever heard Henry raise his voice. Maybe it was his first time ever raising his voice, judging by the color running out of Lee's face.

Henry glared at the man in question, his fists clenched at his sides. "I watched it happen. I've always had my suspicions, but I never thought she'd actually harm her own children. She didn't even think twice. She didn't even look ashamed. She pushed Lee as if— as if brushing lint of her shoulder, as if Lee meant nothing to her. Stop protecting her!"

I took a sharp intake of air, Henry's words creating a coil that wrapped around my heart and squeezed it. There was no way. Mrs. Calloway was malicious, but this went beyond that. To hurt her own son... who could do that? How could anyone hurt someone like Lee? It was almost too much for me to handle and I was just a bystander. How could Lee defend her?

"It's not like that," Lee said, attempting to get off the couch, but the minute he put weight on his right foot, he collapsed right back down. "It was— it was just an accident. I lost my balance."

Henry's shoulders shook. "We're going to the police."

"Henry, no."

Brandon and I exchanged ashen looks. This wasn't the type of thing either of us could butt in about. Nor offer advice. But I wanted to. I wanted to drive to the hotel and drag Mrs. Calloway out by her pristine collar and haul her all the way to the police station. Lock her away for good.

"Then at least the hospital."

"I can't. They ask too many questions."

So it wasn't a one-time thing. Anger flared through me. What kind of sick, twisted person was Mrs. Calloway? Every day there was a new reason to hate her. It was so disgusting it was unfathomable. I bit on my lip hard, trying not to let my emotions show on my face. Lee was probably panicking right now. The rest of us needed to stay level-headed.

Silently, I slipped out of the living room and headed upstairs, Henry's continual arguing with Lee carrying after me. After digging around in the bathroom closet for a moment, I retrieved a medical kit. It'd been a gift from Sebastian. Thank god he'd thought of it.

I hurried back downstairs and sat down next to Lee on the couch, setting the kit on the floor. "I'm not a medical professional in any way, shape, or form, but Brandon and I have bumped up each other enough during our lifetime that I've learned to wrap wounds pretty decently. Can you show me where you're hurt?"

Lee offered me a small smile. "Thank you, but I'm fine—"

Henry stomped forward, picking up Lee's ankle which earned a yelp from the injured male. "You're not fine. If you're not going to a hospital, then Henley and I will patch you up for now. Brandon, make some ice packets and grab some ibuprofen. Henley, check his wrists first."

"Yes, sir," Brandon and I said simultaneously, neither of us daring to question him. Henry was almost intimidating— no he was intimidating right now.

Lee had been cradling his hand to his chest, but held it out to me when Henry gave him a sharp look. I gently took it in my hands, examining it. While it was bruised and swollen, it didn't look disfigured. Lee didn't seem to flinch when I flipped his hand over to check the other side. A good sign that maybe it was sprained, but not broken.

"We should get the swelling down. Does it hurt a lot?" I asked Lee.

Lee shook his head. "No. Just a little."

"Do you mind if I asked how hard you fell?" I had a mental image of Lee tumbling down a whole flight of stairs and shuddered.

"It wasn't bad. I tripped and fell down the last five or so steps."

"You didn't trip," Henry said coldly.

Lee sunk into himself and I frowned at Henry. Henry was staring hard at Lee's ankle, his hands shaking. How horrible would it feel to watch and know you couldn't do anything? No wonder Henry was so upset.

"Lee, you can tell us the truth," I said as Brandon returned to the room, clumsily made ice packets in hand, handing one to Henry who applied it to Lee's ankle. "We won't do anything without your permission. Here, hold one of these to your wrists. Gently."

Biting his lip, Lee reached out and took the ice from Brandon, setting it onto his injured wrist. His face scrunched up momentarily and he readjusted the nice, laying back into the couch. "I know. It's just it's not as bad as you think. She didn't mean to do it— ow, Henry, ow!"

Henry quickly let go of Lee's ankle, yanking his hands back. Shame filled his cheeks and he ducked his head. "Sorry."

Lee used his uninjured hand to ruffle Henry's hair. "It's okay. I'm sorry you had to see that."

"If she tries anything again, I'll stop her."

"Don't worry about that. This won't happen again. It was an accident. Really," Lee insisted. "I'm not even that hurt."

"How did it happen?" I asked, trying to keep my tone light.

Lee's eyes met mine and he smiled tiredly. "We were arguing about work. That's also why this was pretty much my fault. She was trying to leave and I wouldn't let her. It was just out of instinct. She was just trying to get away from me and I lost my balance. That's all. She's just hot headed. She didn't think it through."

It almost sounded like Lee was convincing himself that was what had happened. Henry's clenched jaw made me think otherwise, but at the risk of upsetting Lee, I decided not to voice my concerns. It was a sensitive subject. Instead, I just nodded. "Do you mind if I check under your shirt? I imagine you fell backward and twisted to try to catch yourself, which is how you injured your wrist. But you could have hurt your ribs too. Are you in any pain there?"

Lee leaned forward on the couch and let me unbutton his shirt. "It's a little sore, but I think my wrist and ankle hurt the most. I might have twisted my ankle when I lost my footing."

"Did you study forensics or something while I was in jail or something?" Brandon asked. "Because Lee hurting his ribs actually makes sense."

I paused in my inspection of Lee's side to give Brandon a dry look. "No. It's called common sense."

Brandon pursed his lips, but didn't retort.

"Is it tender?" I asked Lee, gently applying pressure to a spot that seemed to be bruising.

He jolted, but quickly recovered. "No. It's ticklish though."

A smooth, pale scar peeked out of the waistband of his pants and I stared at it for a moment. Where could it have come from? When he had his accident? It would make sense. Did Lee remember the accident every time he saw the scar? The thought made my heart hurt.

Snapping myself out of it, I smoothed his shirt back down, helping to button it back up. "It seems like you'll be okay without a trip to the hospital, but if the swelling in your ankle or wrist gets worse, you really should have it checked out by a professional."

"If it comes to it I know an old colleague who will check me out," Lee said, readjusting himself and sliding his foot out of Henry's grasp. "Henry, you don't need to hold that. I'll just prop my foot up."

Henry hesitated but eventually stood up. "Okay. You should get some rest." He helped Lee prop his ankle up on a pillow in a way where the ice pack rested against it without needing to be held.

"Oh, take these too," Brandon offered, handing Lee a cup of water and the ibuprofen.

"Thanks, you guys," Lee responded gratefully, taking turns in smiling at the three of us.

A hand gently touched mine and I turned to Henry, seeing him dip his head furtively toward the kitchen. "Why don't I order us some food?" I suggested. "Henry, do you want to look at the menus with me?"

Once alone, Henry scrubbed a hand over his forehead, letting out a deep sigh. "Sorry about this, Henley."

"What? Sorry? There's nothing to apologize for."

"You're already so entangled with Bennett's problems and now it seems I've brought you Lee's."

"My friends' problems are my own."

Henry smiled at that. "You're too kind."

"I'm just trying to be a decent human being. Everyone helps me so much, it's the least I can do... but do you believe Lee? Was it really an accident?"

The humor faded from Henry's face. "It wasn't."

"I believe you," I admitted. "Mrs. Calloway is pure evil. I'm not surprised she could even hurt her own child. But... does this happen a lot?"

"No, thankfully. More times than what could be considered as accidental though, that's for sure. Now that I've seen it with my own eyes, there's a few other instances where Lee had been hurt and his explanations didn't quite make sense."

The next question bubbled at my lips, but I wasn't sure if I should ask it. While I wanted to help Lee, it wasn't really my business. If Lee wanted to open up to me, I'd let him. The same went for Bennett. And if Mrs. Calloway was doing this to Bennett too....

"I don't think she's ever done anything to Bennett."

I blinked at Henry.

He shrugged. "That was my first thought too. If she did this to Lee, it would make sense for her to do this to Bennett. But she doesn't. I don't know why this happened. She has anger issues, yes, but to physically harm her child? How could a mother do that? Henley, she didn't show an ounce of regret after Lee fell. She turned a cold shoulder and walked the other way. I don't understand. How could she do that? How could she hurt Lee—"

"It's okay, Henry," I said, taking his hand in mine. "You did the best thing you could possibly do by being with him. I know you're more than willing to protect him."

Henry's fingers dug into my skin as he wrapped his hand around mine. "But, Henley... something else is on my mind."

"What?"

His hand was shaking now and he kept his head down. "Now that I'm thinking about it, Mrs. Calloway has always been hard on Lee. She drove him to su— to just want to give up. She's always been cruel so I thought that was just normal. But I should know better than anyone. I'm the one who had been around Mrs. Calloway the most. Then I was the one who had been around Lee the most. Now I'm the one around Bennett the most. And now I see what I never saw before."

His hand was slick in mine— a stark contrast to how dry my mouth felt. He shook like a willow tree before me, his grip nearly cutting off circulation as he searched for his next words.

"I don't know who to tell," he whispered, his eyes lined with tears as he looked up at me.

My heart jumped into my throat. This situation was serious, I knew that, but whatever Henry was thinking about was absolutely tearing him apart. "What is it, Henry?"

"On that night— the night of Lee's accident— I never thought this was worth mentioning. I— I've been keeping this a secret. I've been protecting her without even knowing it. What she did to Lee." Tears fell from Henry's eyes and I felt helpless. "I think it was her."

"What was her?" I pressed.

"I had called her. I don't know how I missed it. I'm horrible. I missed something that was so clear. It was so clear."

Chills ran down my spine. I suddenly felt queasy. "Henry—"

"When I called Mrs. Calloway, she had known. I remember the conversation clearly because I had thought it was weird that she could talk about her injured son so casually. Saying she knew what happened already— but now I realized she couldn't have. I was Lee's emergency contact, not her. It was me, then Bennett, then her. I was the one who got the call first. The call that Lee had been hit by a car."

My body froze up.

"That's not it though, Henley. That's not what tipped me off. It's when Sebastian found those medical records. They held proof that Lee had been hit by a car. No one thought twice about it, thinking it was faked to cover up the fact that Brandon had been blamed for Lee's accident. But that accident report wasn't faked, Henley. When Sebastian showed me it, I remembered something. That night I called Mrs. Calloway, she had said Lee crashed his car. She knew what happened already. Lee crashed his car."

Henry paused as if waiting for me to catch on to what he was saying, but my mind was swirling with his words. I felt physically dizzy. What was he trying to say? Mrs. Calloway knew that Lee was going to kill himself? Was she there, watching him, not stopping him? Or...?"

"Henley, the call from the police told me that Lee had been hit by a car. After that, Mrs. Calloway changed her story. She told Bennett and everyone else that Lee tried to kill himself by throwing himself in front of a car. So why, when I had called Mrs. Calloway the night of the accident, would she have said that she already knew Lee had crashed his car? I thought it was a slip of the tongue at the time, but now I think I understand."

I shook my head. "I don't know what you're trying to say."

"We didn't find out that Lee had crashed the car until a few weeks ago," he continued, his voice getting lower. "But Mrs. Calloway knew the very night of the accident. That's how she could set everything up to frame your brother. But... Lee was conscious at the time. He can remember hitting the tree. I know he wouldn't have let his mother blame his accident on a bystander. So if she was desperate enough to keep him quiet..."

Henry was rambling like a crazy person. He was talking in circles. My eyes searched his, trying to find the answer.

"Henley, I think Mrs. Calloway hit Lee with her car," he finally whispered.

My intake of air was so fast and forceful, I choked on it. Henry's hands gripped my arms tightly as I fought for air, my mind racing. No, that couldn't be true. No one would take it that far. Why would Mrs. Calloway do that? By blaming everything on my brother, she had already protected her son.

"It doesn't make sense," I struggled to get out, taking in mouthfuls of air.

"It does. Lee would have never let Mrs. Calloway blame his accident on someone else. He didn't hit the tree that hard. He could remember what was happening. Mrs. Calloway knew Lee wouldn't let her blame it on someone else. There's no way it's a coincidence that Lee got hit by a car only moments after crashing his. She was there before anyone else. That night there were two accident reports, Henley. Brandon's and Lee's."

A lump formed in the back of my throat. This was impossible. Mrs. Calloway wouldn't do that to her own son just to keep him quiet. My mind couldn't even comprehend something like that. It couldn't wrap around Henry's words. Henry had to be mistaken."

Henry finally let go of me, his hands going to cover his eyes, pressing down hard on them. "She said it to me so long ago and I never even realized... I didn't think anything of it. I've been keeping it to myself. I didn't believe she could hurt her own son like that. Not Lee. But now that I've seen it with my own eyes. That's what they were arguing about, Henley."

"What?"

"Lee can't remember anything after he crashed his car. He knew she lied to the rest of us. He knows something is up and went to demand the truth from her. That's when she pushed him down the stairs." Henry shuddered. "Was that another attempt at silencing him? If what I'm thinking turns out to be true, what if Lee remembers what actually happened? Lee is... fragile. I don't know how he would handle it if it turned out his mother purposely tried to injure him."

Even though Henry had said that Lee was the fragile one, Henry looked one stone away from shattering. Not knowing what to do, I wrapped my arms around him, holding him gently.

"I'm sorry, Henley. I can't tell anyone else. Bennett and Lee have suffered so much. What should I do?"