55

The office was very nicely decorated. Plants were scattered around the large, dark brown desk, and the windows reached to the floor, making the view all the more beautiful.

"Sit down," Mr. Johnson asked me and I took a closer look at him.

He looked just like the many magazines I'd seen him in before. His black hair was a little longer and the dark beard covered half his face.

"Thanks," I then murmured under my breath and sat down, shifting nervously in the chair.

"So, you're here for the internship. What-"

"I'm here for something else, to be honest," I interrupted him and he frowned at me as I breathed in and out deeply, gathering up all my courage.

Kiyan said he was a good friend of his parents, so I told him all about the accident. About Chloe driving, about Kiyan being flashed beforehand and about them both being drunk. I didn't mention Zayn and Adam, they wouldn't be credible witnesses anyway and I didn't want to involve them unnecessarily in case things went wrong.

After I told a complete stranger everything to me, he just nodded deep in thought and stared out the window for a while. I was so nervous and insecure that the constant feeling of having to flee spread through me. But I didn't give in to this urge.

"Mia, right?" he asked me about the silence and I just nodded in agreement.

"I'll see what I can do. Should I call the police-"

"No!" I immediately yelled in panic while he opened his eyes wide in shock and tried to calm me down immediately. The police would never believe me, plus I had threatened a therapist with a knife and shot a man while trying to escape... I wouldn't believe myself.

"It's okay," he said calmly, then picked up the phone to call his technician.

I didn't listen to the conversation and looked down until he got up, came around the table and stopped in front of me. "My technician is working on it. It will probably take several hours. Would you like a coffee, something to eat or is there anything else I can do for you?"

I shook my head and then got up too.

"I'll go get some fresh air. Thanks for your trouble."

Without paying any attention to anything else, I left his office and took the stairs down, then left the building as if in a trance.

Micah sat on a bench to the right and looked frozen. The sight made my heart ache and I quickly ran over to him to finally tell him everything. He'd probably saved my life, almost sacrificing his in the process. I owed him a great deal and telling him the truth about everything seemed like a good start.

"Hey," I sat down next to him on the bench and leaned my head on his shoulder.

"Hey," he breathed softly and put his hand on mine.

While I then told him every detail, I had to pause again and again to hold back the tears as best I could. It seemed unbelievable to me that all of this had really happened and I subconsciously had to ask myself why this had to happen to me of all people. It had brought me to Kiyan, had made me stronger, but at the same time, out of necessity, I had also become a criminal with a growing list of crimes. I didn't recognize myself.

"My God, Mia," Micah took me tightly in his arms and rubbed my back. "Everything will be fine. I'm here and we'll find a solution for everything. That your mother didn't believe you ... words fail me."

I missed them too... I wasn't sure how it would all end, but what I was more than sure of was that I never wanted to go back to my mother. I'd rather walk through hell barefoot than have to look into her eyes one more time.

"And what are we doing here?" he then asked and I broke the hug to look at the street, which was busy at this time of day.

"The accident was here and I know from a magazine that Mr Johnson is known for putting security cameras on his buildings all the time. If he has video from that morning, from the right angle, I can use it to prove Kiyan's innocence " I explained to Micah, who looked at me confused.

"Don't you think the police didn't look at the videos two years ago?" he asked and he was right in thinking that, but if they did, they would have arrested Chloe long ago.

"No, I don't think so, otherwise Kiyan would have been arrested by them long ago. After all, they would have recognized the Mercedes on the video immediately."

He nodded again and we both looked down for a while until I heard Mr. Johnson in front of me.

"Mrs. Callahan," he approached me, two CDs in hand. "I'm not supposed to give you this, and these are only copies, but if you find anything useful on them, get in touch and I'll turn the original over to the police."

"Thank you," I breathed in relief, taking the CDs and walking to his bike with Micah.

"Where should we go?" I asked him and he shrugged unknowingly.

"If Thomas was found, only police officers will be around in our neighborhood. You're probably on their screen because they'll be the first to pin it on you," he said and I briefly considered going to Cody, but his parents already had me once betrayed. I wouldn't allow it a second time.

"I'll call Zayn," Micah said and I immediately grabbed the phone from his hand.

"Chloe knows I was with Zayn. If she found out about Thomas, the cops will be at his door before we even get there."

He rolled his eyes in stress and I called Zayn with an idea in mind.

"What are you doing?" Micah asked and I held out my hand to calm him down.

"I have an idea."

We waited on a street corner for Zayn, who finally came running after what felt like an eternity.

"What happened?" he asked immediately, taking a closer look at Micah's face, which had become quite plump. Even the blood on the sleeve of his jacket only gave an idea of what we had been through.

"Mia shot Thomas," Micah said like a shot, and my stomach clenched uncomfortably at the sentence.

Zayn looked back and forth between the two of us in confusion and suddenly started laughing out loud. I looked at Micah, he looked at me, and I was starting to worry more about Zayn than myself.

"Are you serious?" he asked, still smiling, shaking his head. "And I always thought you were some kind of boring bigwigs. That's when the babysitter turns into an ice-cold killer. Don't you say anything again when I paint a dick on someone's face."

Absolutely irritated by his easygoing manner, I frowned and looked at his smirking face. "Are you alright?" I asked him and he looked at me just as confused as I at him.

"Yes, why?" he replied.

"Because we just told you someone died and you're joking about it," Micah forestalled me, but Zayn just rolled his eyes.

"My god guys! It's not like she personally shot the Pope," he pointed at me, looking at Micah, and then put an arm around my shoulder. "Besides, you are good people. There must have been a good reason."

Embarrassed, I looked at Micah, who was looking down and taking a deep breath.

"I can tell you don't want to talk about it, but tell me what you're up to now."

"I have CDs from the cameras here from the morning of the accident. We can't see you, Micah, or me, so we thought you could call Mandy," I explained uncertainly, and he sadly shook his head at mine words.

"It's over with Mandy. I can call her, but I don't think she would let us in."

He turns away and pulls out his phone while Micah turns back to me.

"That's your great idea? Get another person involved?" he said uncertainly, and I immediately felt bad for asking Zayn, but saw no other way out.

"We don't have to tell her everything. We ask if we can use her laptop, look at the CDs and leave," I tried to calm him down and at that moment Zayn came back to us.

"We can," he said, slightly annoyed, and Micah got his bike and we started walking together.

"Tell me, why is it over?" I then asked Zayn while the three of us made our way through several side streets.

"Because I'm not good for her. She's far too intelligent to find me interesting for long," he said before glancing at me briefly. "I'd rather finish it before I break it."

I thought about his words and immediately Kiyan came to mind, which immediately plunged me into deep sadness. He always thought I was too good for him too, but he was wrong. He was my light and the only thing that kept me alive. Without him I would have given up a long time ago.

"Zayn," I drew his attention back to me and he gave me a questioning look. "You shouldn't misjudge Mandy. She certainly wouldn't have gotten involved with you if she wasn't really interested, she's too smart for that," I smiled and he avoided my gaze, only to look ahead thoughtfully. I hoped the two of them could sort it out because they were doing well and I realized in that moment why Zayn looked so beat up. Surely he missed her.

"Now, can you guys tell me exactly what happened to Thomas?" Zayn then broke the ensuing silence and Micah did most of the narration while I concentrated on not panicking again. The only thing I added was his affair with Chloe.

"Then he really deserves it," Zayn said after Micah's words and put his arm around my shoulders again. "It'll be fine. If not, we'll emigrate together, preferably to Mexico or Canada."

He laughed briefly and I had to smile briefly too, although everything inside me was constantly crying as long as Kiyan wasn't with me.

"So, here we are," he stopped with us in front of a small, cozy house that looked simply beautiful with all the flowers in the front yard.

Zayn ran ahead of us to the front door and rang the bell, then ran a hand through his tousled hair nervously.

Kinda cute how Mandy threw him off course.

As soon as she opened the door, Zayn started to smile, but I was the first to greet her with a hug.

"Come in. My parents aren't there," she said and we followed her inside.

We were only briefly down the hall when she preceded us up the stairs into a large room that appeared to be hers.

"So, what's going on?" the blonde then asked curiously and while Micah and I acted like everything was fine, Zayn just started babbling non-stop.

"Mia was in a shack and shot Thomas because he wanted to kill Micah. Kiyan is in jail because Chloe ran over a woman and Thomas killed Mia's father. I'm just here because I wanted to see you."

As Micah and I stared at him in disbelief, he smiled at Mandy, who rolled her eyes and grinned.

"Yeah sure," she giggled, then turned to me. "Now the truth, please."

I stood speechless, guiltily avoiding her gaze until I heard her gasp for breath.

"Are you serious?!?!", she suddenly asked angrily and sat down on the edge of her bed, which was on the wall behind her, to touch her heart with wide eyes.

"Don't worry," Zayn said, crouching in front of her. "I'll tell you everything in detail, but they both urgently need your laptop."

She stared at the floor in a daze, then gestured with trembling hands to her desk to my right, where I immediately saw the laptop. I quickly sat down on the bright desk chair, opened the laptop and then threw in one of the CDs.

"You could be a little more empathetic," I heard Micah say, but I just focused on the video, even though I felt sorry for Mandy that I had been told everything so clumsily, but that's how Zayn was.

No friend of many words. Better to bang your head against the wall.

And then suddenly I saw it, right in front of me on the small screen. The accident that took my breath away. I covered my mouth in shock and froze for a moment.