It didn't take much pleading for the nurses to allow Clara to stay after visiting hours were over.

Which was a relief, because Jesse and Khalil had insisted on staying in the room the whole time. They both didn't speak much, they only cast curious and nervous glances towards me. And I knew why, they were terrified that I was going to gain my lost memories back any second.

And they were right to be terrified, because I knew that something was going on. Something fishy, something not right. Something that needed to be covered up so badly that Jesse was ready and willing to blackmail Khalil and his family.

I could understand now why Khalil couldn't tell me. His family was high profile in our city, his dad being a well regarded lawyer. Rumour had it he was in line to become a judge. The video leaking would destroy them. Though, I was still hurt. He was lying just as much as Jesse was, and just as much as Brett was.

"Read this one," I pointed to Clara's laptop screen, she was scrolling down the results that appeared when she searched 'boat accident, July 22 Pigeon Lake."

"Okay," Clara clicked on the link, and the screen opened to a news article from the week after it happened.

"Police have opened a criminal investigation involving a fatal boating collision that happened in the channels of Pigeon Lake on the late hours of July 22nd. Blah blah blah. We know all this," Clara read from the screen absentmindedly.

"Police are announcing that the life lost belonged to Derrick Richardson, who was 25 at the time of the accident." Clara continued, before her eyebrows narrowed. "Derrick Richardson? Why does that sound familiar? Richardson... Richardson..."

"Roman's brother," I muttered, closing my eyes for a second as I said it. How was it only yesterday that I had found out it was him? It felt like weeks.

"Wait," Clara snapped her head towards me, "what the fuck do you mean that's Roman's brother?"

"I mean Derrick Richardson was Roman's brother," I repeated.

"Woah, woah, woah," Clara pushed the screen away from her like she was scared she was doing something wrong. "When the hell did you find this out?"

"Yesterday," I told her, "when I was at his house. After we had sex."

"Holy shit," Clara breathed out. "Does he know?"

"Does he know? What, do you think I said, hey Roman, thanks for the sex last night. Oh by the way, I was a part of the reason why your brother died."

"Well, I guess when you put it that way," Clara sighed. "I mean, are you okay?"

"No," I said, looking away from her. "You know I was almost ready to tell Jesse to go fuck himself, and face whatever consequences happened, because I felt safe with Roman? For once, I felt like a guy actually gave a fuck about me. Now, no matter what happens... Roman and I can never be together."

"Never say never," Clara said as she patted my back. "Stranger things have happened."

"Do you honestly think Roman would ever forgive me? We had barely started, we can't continue with something like this in our paths. It's just not possible," I told her, which is the truth.

Roman has only ever thought of me as one way. He's seen the girl that I used to be and he hoped I could get back there. In fact, he was always counting on the fact that I would get back to being the girl at the lunch table. He never considered that I could never be her again. At least, not to him. No, once he knew, I would only ever be one thing. A liar.

That's the tricky thing about lying, isn't it? Once you're a liar, you'll never be anything but a liar again. Everyone will always think twice about what you're saying, always looking for the flaw in your words. Always looking for the clues to the real story. No one will ever trust you again.

"Here's a picture of him," Clara told me, pointing towards a screen.

I debated on looking at it. Part of me really didn't want to, but the curious part of me won. I looked at the picture and it almost took my breath away. He looked so much like Roman. They shared the same bright blue eyes, and the same olive skin. Though, his brother's hair was longer. The brown waves almost fell to his shoulders.

"Fuck," I muttered, "they look so much alike."

"There's not much here that we don't know, Lilly, no new information," Clara told me, scrolling down the bottom of the article.

"Let's look at the next one," I said to her, watching as she clicked the back button.

We looked through the first five articles. They were all old, only stretching until two weeks after the accident happened. I was surprised at that fact, I had figured it to be huge news the way that Brett and Jesse were acting like it was. I figured there would be many articles written in the last couple of months. They had drilled it into our heads that we shouldn't be looking because there was so much information on it.

"They're all the same," Clara finally sighed, leaning against her arms. "Why do you think we will find something?"

"Because Khalil was trying to tell me something, and he gave me a printed out article. He said I to read all of it, and he said that I had to break up with Jesse. He kept telling me I had to break up with him, over and over again."

"Are you sure that's not because Khalil wants to get into your pants?" Clara asked, her eyebrows raised.

"Since when does Khalil want to get in my pants? You're the second person to say that," I asked her, remembering Jesse's words from earlier.

"Since, like freshman year. You didn't realize that? It was pretty obvious," Clara told me, the look on her face was like she was saying duh.

"He's just nice," I dismissed her. I tried to think back to my interactions with Khalil, but I could really only place him beside Jesse. He was only a side character in my memories, an extra.

"Sure," Clara scoffed, rolling her eyes at me. "Anyways, did you look at the article at all? What did it look like?"

"Well," I tried to bring the picture of the article from my mind back to my vision. "There was a picture of the smashed up boat, not a picture of Derrick."

"Hmm," Clara hummed out, "okay. All the articles have either had a picture of the lake or of Derrick. Do you remember what the news site was called?"

"Fuck," I cursed as I struggled to remember. "Central... something?"

"Central?" Clara confirmed, though she was already busy typing again. "Okay, let's see... Central CT News?"

"Could be," I told her, leaning forward so I could see the screen again. "Oh, shit, look! It's that one."

I sighed a breath of relief as I spotted the article that Khalil had given me at my doorstep. The picture looked just how I remembered it, though, it was hard to get the image of the destroyed boat to leave my mind.

"Okay, okay..." Clara started murmuring as she read through the article. She was a much faster reader than I was, so I didn't try to out-read her. I simply waited, knowing Clara's genius brain would be able to pick out any inconsistencies.

"There's nothing new," Clara said after a moment. "It's the same information as the other articles."

"What the fuck?" I groaned in frustration. The hope was slipping now that we would be able to understand what they were keeping from us. I raised my hands up to my head, the same claustrophobic feeling of being trapped in a lie I had lived with for the last few months formed once again.

"Except... wait, wait a second, Lilly," Clara said slowly, causing me to look back towards her. Her eyes were rapidly scanning something, squinting as if it was hard to see.

"There's an edit made here, at the bottom of the page," Clara told me.

"Okay, and what does it say," I asked her, feeling a sharp stab of desperate hope in my stomach once again when I saw her eyes grow wide.

"It says, This article was edited on September 2 2019. There is new information containing the pending police investigation of the fatal accident on July 22. The Coll Town Police Department has determined the driver of the boat, Derrick Richardson, had a BAC (Blood Alcohol Content) of 0.20, and that the accident was driver error and was not connected to the missing rock markers."

"Wait," I was stunned speechless, "what does that mean?"

"There's more," Clara looked up at me, seemingly hesitant to tell me what it said.

"Tell me!" I urged her.

"The criminal investigation regarding this accident has been formally closed as of August 31, 2019," Clara read out, and I knew instantly what the look was for. "That was almost six weeks ago."