Classified ☑

[ chapter 43 ]

Shelly's hand shook as she pointed the gun at me, her eyes landing briefly on Lucille. "She may have taken your parents away from you-" Then her eyes found mine. "-but your family and you took everything from me."

"Shelly I-" I quit talking as soon as Shelly thrust the gun in my direction again. She was unhinged and I had no idea how I was going to get out of this.

"Just shut up!" Shelly's breath was labored as she spoke, tears threatening to roll down her face. She took her glasses off and smashed them to the ground.

Guess she never needed those.

"When I first met you, I thought we could've been friends. But no. You took everything from me, along with Cole. You took him away from me too."

I knew there was much more to this. All of this couldn't be over a boy.

"And what do I have to do with this?" Lucille asked, which surprised me because it drew Shelly's attention along with her gun's.

"You started this whole mess," Shelly whispered, waving the gun at Lucille. "You were the one who sent Nina's parents to kill mine. That last FBI agent was my dad."

A lump formed in my throat. No wonder she was out for revenge, but for how long had she been at it.

Shelly's burning eyes turned on me once more. "And your mom killed my mom because she just happened to walk in at the wrong time, leaving me alone with just my sister. Do you know what foster care did to us before we were able to get out?"

I didn't want to imagine and Shelly didn't give me time to.

"I heard the entire conversation between you two, confirming everything I was told growing up." Shelly waved the gun between Lucille and me. "Who do you think brought you two here?" Her eyes landed on Lucille. "I was the one who sent a text to you pretending to be Nina."

"What did it say?" I asked, trying to buy us more time.

"That'd you hand over the flash drive for your freedom," Shelly answered matter of factly.

No wonder Lucille had just written on the note 'leave the flash drive and go.' "And you sent me the text about you being held captive?"

Shelly grinned devilishly. "Yup. Thanks for coming to my rescue, even though I'm going to end up killing you. Ironic right?" Before I could interrupt, she charged on with her speech. "I figured your Uncle had nothing to do with this so I let him take the flash drive to the undercover FBI lady. Plus, TIA would be dragged down and gone for good."

At least that was something Shelly and I could agree on.

"So, why is she here then?" Lucille asked, nodding her head towards me but keeping her eyes on Shelly. "I was the one who sent her parents to kill yours. Aren't you only focused on killing the guilty here?"

Shelly's laugh rang out, sending chills down my spine. "Oh, but she is. You both are. You're both responsible for killing my older sister. Angel."

Lucille and I both sucked in a breath at the same time. It all made sense now. The resemblance between Shelly and Angel was uncanny. "She was going to kill me, Shelly. It was in self defense."

Immediately the gun was placed against my forehead with Shelly's shaky hand. "Shut up!" she yelled out. "I'm sick and tired of you people making excuses. Just own the fact that you killed her."

"Then why did Angel join TIA?" Lucille asked, once again drawing Shelly's attention.

"She wanted to get revenge for our parents. She didn't want me getting involved so she sent me to go to public school. But then she found out that our parents' murders were gone. She wanted to find them eventually, but she lost sight of our goal. She became obsessed with trying to prove herself to you."