Deadly Silence (complete) Chapter 175

Laurent didn’t fight against the hug. His sister wasn’t one for physical contact, and she’d initiated it; pushing her away was the last thing he wanted to do. Eventually, Vivian rested her head on his shoulder and sighed. “…Laurent… did I do the right thing today?”

“The right thing?” He repeated, not sure he understood the question.

“Yeah.”

He glanced at Vivian, but could only see the back of her head. “I don’t think I understand what you want to know; what ‘thing’ are you asking about?”

“Telling everyone… the cops… should I have done it? What if it makes things worse?”

Rolling his eyes, Laurent found it hard to believe how stubborn she could be, only to turn around and lose all confidence in herself. “They signed an NDA, so they legally can’t use anything against us.”

“But… they still know. They won’t suddenly not know…”

“Vivian…” Laurent moved, forcing his sister to look at him once his shoulder was no longer there for support. “Nothing you said made Dad look bad. You never talked about the Business or any of their dealings, only that Richard hated Dad for taking some business stuff from him. For all they know, he could have been talking about restaurants or hotels.

“Everything you said is secondhand information, anyway; if they want to use anything against us, they’d need to get the guy himself to testify, and that won’t happen.”

“How can you know that, though? What if… to get back at Dad… he…”

Laurent placed his hands on her shoulders, giving them a light squeeze, mindful of her bruises. “You said, that Paul admitted to tampering with evidence and all that, right?”

“Yeah…”

“That means everything they’ve ever had on Dad is worthless. You telling them about all that probably wiped his slate clean. They can’t use any evidence that might’ve been tampered with, especially by one of their own, and they can’t know for sure what has and hasn’t been tampered.”

“Except I can’t actually prove any of it. There’s nothing to go on but my word.”

Shaking his head, Laurent said, “Not true. If they have half a brain, they’ll start looking into his past, checking the dates you told them about, and going from there. I’m sure it won’t take them long to find a connection between him and Clark, especially now that they know to look for it.

“Then they’ll be busy reopening literally every case the guy ever worked on; a crooked cop means everyone he’s ever sent to jail will start making noise about being wrongfully convicted. They won’t have time to go after Dad for at least five years.”

Vivian gave him a small nod, but still looked bothered by something. *At least she’s not hiding under a bunch of blankets*, Laurent told himself as he removed his hands from her shoulders.

“He *is* really dead… right?”

Laurent stared at his sister for a moment before replying. “Yes. Paul Oglivie is dead.” Her shoulders slouched at his words, making him wonder how she felt about it. According to Vivian, the man had raised her for the first half of her life; she had to feel some kind of way about his death. “Come on, then. Hit me with whatever’s going on in your head.”

It was Vivian’s turn to shake her head. “It’s nothing.”

*Well, that’s bullshit*, he thought, but decided not to push the subject. “Think you’ll want to join me at school on Monday?”

A grimace fixed itself on her face. “I can’t hold a pen, and walking is a struggle; I don’t think I can handle school, at least not until my hand, or ankle, heals more.”

“You should have accepted the offer of a wheelchair.”

“I’m not being wheeled around when I can walk,” she retorted, sounding almost petulant.

“Then don’t complain about it.”

“You asked.”

Laurent gave her a wicked grin, which got a huff out of her in response.

After a minute passed, she added, “I don’t think I’m ready to face anyone yet, anyway…”

“Face who?”

Another brief silence. “… Miriam and Theo…”

*You could just forget about Theo, and half the issue would be solved*. Not that he was going to say that out loud. “Why not?”

Vivian shifted, looking uncomfortable. “I… basically ghosted them without reason. You can’t just… come back from that.”

“Sure you can,” Laurent told her with another eye roll. “I heard them, when they told you they’d be waiting for an explanation. I know you said you didn’t want to go over everything more than once, but… maybe you should tell them, too.”

“…and if they don’t want to be still be friends after…?”

“How are you so badass you can stick your fingers up someone’s nose, and then in another person’s eye, but can’t be even a little optimistic when it comes to how people feel about you?”

“What I did wasn’t badass, Laurent. It was gross,” she corrected him with a frown. “It was really, really gross.”

“But it worked, didn’t it? Both times, you managed to get away. That, Vivian, is badass. None of us would have thought to go for the nose or eye like that. You probably don’t even need self defense lessons now.”

He watched as she raised a hand to feel along the side of her neck, where an ugly greenish-yellow bruise coloured her skin. Maybe he’d gone a bit too far with his comment, but Laurent wasn’t about to take it back.

“If they’re really your friends, this kind of thing won’t scare them away,” he sighed. “The worst thing that’ll happen is they stop talking to you, right? What’s the best case?”

“The best case…?” She murmured, turning her head a little to one side as she thought about it. “I guess… that they… accept it and things… go back to how they were?”

“Sounds about right. You won’t know until you do it. So, instead of worrying about it, just give them a call.”

Vivian let out a heavy sigh. “I don’t have a phone.”

*Well that’s easy to fix*, Laurent grinned as he pulled out his phone. “Then I guess it’ll have to be in person.” He scrolled through his list of contacts until he found Miriam’s number — they’d exchanged it after the locker incident.

“What are you doing?”

“Texting,” he replied, trying to sound innocent and missing the mark.

“Laurent…” She sounded worried, but he’d already pressed send on the first text. Next, he found Theo’s number and, taking a second to remind himself this was for Vivian, texted the annoying guy the same thing he’d sent Miriam.

\[I’m gonna send someone to get you tomorrow after lunch, so you can come talk to Vivian.\]