All She Ever Wanted - Barbara Freethy [122]
"How could you think that?" Natalie asked.
"Because Emily had called me that night in tears. She said you'd had a terrible fight. That's why I came over. I knew she was upset, but I was too late." He shook his head with regret. "Later I found her journal. She'd left it in my office after one of our tutoring sessions. I read about her conflict with you over Cole. I put the two together."
"And came up with five," Natalie said harshly. "If you had suspicions about me, why didn't you just go to Cole or the Parishes? Why did you write a book?"
"I couldn't tell anyone about my involvement with Emily. I would have lost my job and Diane would have been humiliated. I knew I had already hurt her with the affair." He glanced at Diane, who quickly averted her gaze. "That's why I wrote the book under a pen name and took steps to make sure no one would know who I was. That's why I disguised myself for book tour appearances. I had no idea the novel would be such a hit. But I was glad when people started to recognize the story. I didn't even care that your true names came out. I wanted you to pay for Emily's death, Natalie, because I loved her, and I thought you'd gotten away with murder. Emily was beautiful and innocent, and she didn't deserve to die," he said passionately. "God, Diane, why did you do it? She was just a kid, a sweet kid. She wasn't the guilty party, it was me. Why did you go after her? I told you we'd ended it. That it was over. You didn't have to come here that night."
"Yes, I did. I had to tell that little bitch what I thought of her," Diane said hotly. "She wasn't sweet and innocent. She knew what she was doing, and she wasn't sorry."
"She was sorry," Natalie interrupted. "She told me so that night."
"It doesn't matter. None of you can prove anything," Diane said.
"We'll let the police decide that," Cole said sharply. He moved to stand directly in front of Diane. "I'll tell you this. If they don't make you pay, I will."
"You can't threaten me." She looked around wildly. "If something happens to me, everyone will know you did it. I have witnesses. They all heard you."
"If something happens to you, it might be me who does it," Madison said.
"Or me," Dylan added.
"Or me," Natalie said.
"Greg—you have to help me." Diane turned to her husband, her hand raised in a silent plea. "I did it for you, for us. I just wanted her to leave us alone. I never meant for her to fall."
"But you didn't really care that Emily fell or that she died," he said flatly.
"And you didn't really care that you hurt me," she retorted. "If you hadn't written that damn book, this wouldn't be happening right now."
Which was truly the irony of it all, Natalie realized. Greg had wanted to expose the true killer, and he had—his wife.
"Let's go." Dylan grabbed Diane's arm. "It's time for you to have a little chat with the Santa Cruz Police."
With his grip on her arm, Diane had no choice but to go with him. Madison, Laura, and Drew followed, leaving Cole and Natalie alone with the professor.
"I'm sorry," Greg said to her. "Truly sorry. I honestly thought I was right about you."
"But you weren't right, and you will make a public statement as to just how wrong you were—about Emily's death and also about the pills that I did not supply to her," Natalie told him. "After that, I'll decide if I want to pursue legal action."
He nodded. "It doesn't matter. It will all come out now, anyway. I'm glad. Emily was too good a person to have been anyone's nasty little secret, including mine." He looked at Cole. "She was a wonderful girl. And she was crazy about her family. That's why we got together in the first place. She begged me to tutor her. She didn't want to let anyone down by failing my class."
"You seduced her," Cole said furiously. "You made an innocent girl feel like she had no choice but to—"
"No, he didn't," Natalie interrupted. She saw anger flare in Cole's eyes, but there had been too many misunderstandings already. "Emily told me she loved him.