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    Chapter 28



    tab The car engine sputtered and came to a stop as I reached home.
    tab Because of strange habit, I twisted the knob of my door before opening. And I was rather surprised when I found the door...
    tab Unlocked.
    tab I went into a state of panic. I locked the house! Which meant someone had unlocked it.
    tab I rushed inside, afraid of the worse case scenario, but after turning on the lights, I found myself pleasently surprised for the whole house to be sound and untouched.
    tab Mostly untouched.
    tab I trudged on upstairs and collapsed onto my bed, exhausted by the gut wrenching day I had gone through. Thinking about it, gut wrenching was kind of an understatement. I just saw to people die, and one of them died by my owns hands. I sighed, a tired, exhasperated sigh, and let my eyes wander around the room. Then I saw something.
    tab A paper, bended and perched on the counter. I picked it up. "To Chad Gibson" A simple mush of printed letters on the front. I opened it up, and began to read.

    tab I debated whether to tell you this or not. But after seeing your scene at the hotel, I convinced myself I had to.
    tab Questions should be rumbling in your brain right now. How I killed her. Why I killed her. And I can answer both those questions.
    tab I didn't kill her.
    tab I know this whole chirade from everyone has made people difficult to trust, but you have to believe me on this. John killed your wife for pay.
    tab Kyle has been attempting to trick you the whole way through. He wants to see you fall, and the only way he can do that is by lying, but making the lie seem real.
    tab John and I weren't discussing about the murder. We were discussing you. As you know already, Kyle was attempting to kill you. John wanted me to come in. And do...something. Don't ask me what, because even now, I don't know. I don't know what I'd do if I did walk into a scene of Kyle threatening
    tab There is one final thing that might both sadden and give you happiness. Check the drawer under where this letter is. You will find the final clue, which even the dumbest detective of all would for sure be able to deceifer.
    tab I'm going away, Chad. Far away. Once you find out what's in that drawer, you might want to chase after me, but don't. I've chosen this path for my own reasons that I might one day uncover. But not today. Today, I want you to remember just one thing:
    tab I love you.

    tab With trembling hands, I dropped the note. "I love you"? Why would Sarah say that? Heck, how'd Sarah even get in here to leave the letter?
    tab Did I want to know? Was the truth going to change the way I lived forever? Did I want to know? Did I really want to know?
    tab But those questions didn't matter. I needed to know.
    tab My hands quivered as I reached for the drawer handle. Quivered of an odd mixture of excitement, dread, fulfillment, worrying...
    tab The drawer slid out as I pulled down. One single object was in it. A small, silver box, about two inches on each side.
    tab I swallowed, and opened it up, already having a pretty solid guess to what was inside it.
    tab Silver shining like the box itself, glinting with dotted diamonds.
    tab It was my wife's wedding ring, with one note inside the box as well,
    tab "This is who I was. This is who we were."

    tab So I was being tricked the whole time. Every single step of the way. That was the object of what Kyle was trying to do. Make me slip up. Make me fall. Make me into the heartless murderer.
    tab For that one second, I couldn't think. Couldn't breath. Couldn't do anything. I just went...blank.
    tab Why? Why didn't she tell me? Things would've been so much easier to grasp. To understand. To take. Maybe if she told me earlier, I wouldn't have even become the heartless murderer. Maybe things would've been somehow...different.
    tab A heartless murderer...I looked at the phone. If Kyle's whole object of this chirade was to make me look like him, then I was going to prove him wrong by doing something he'd never do.
    tab I was going to hand myself in.