Chapter 175: The Unexpected Bastard

Chapter 175: The Unexpected Bastard
Nina's POV
Vivian introduced herself with her most defining characteristic. "I'm the mayor's daughter."
That single sentence told me everything about her. As if being the mayor's daughter was the only valuable identity she possessed. As if without that title, she would be nothing at all.
But what surprised me most was discovering that Tyler had become Vivian's fiancé. The news hit me harder than I expected. I tried to tell myself I didn't care about their relationship anymore, that Tyler meant nothing to me now. But their engagement brought me trouble I hadn't anticipated.
The last thing I wanted was to attract attention in this town. I'd worked so hard to stay invisible, to keep my head down and blend into the background. But after Vivian made such a scene, keeping a low profile seemed almost impossible.
What I truly hadn't expected was that Vivian's accidental fall into the river would lead to Tara's body being discovered. I'd thought with a bit of luck, Tara would sleep at the bottom of the Mississippi forever. The river had kept so many secrets over the years. I'd hoped it would keep mine too.
Despite my fear, I forced myself to stay calm. The Willowbend police were notoriously useless anyway. This case would probably be closed quickly with a simple drowning verdict. Just like they'd handled June's death. Just like they'd handled everything else in this town. Nobody here looked too hard at anything.
But then the police department brought in an officer from New York. Dean.
I recognized him immediately. I'd seen him twice before in my other life. The first time was when I'd reported the phone scam and that restaurant employee who'd sexually harassed me. Dean had told his subordinate Logan to take my case seriously, to actually help me.
The second time was at the strip club when Raymond's business partner had cornered me. Dean had appeared like some kind of guardian angel and rescued me from that terrible situation.
I'd been terrified he might recognize me. But he didn't. Why would he? A prestigious officer like him wouldn't remember someone as insignificant as a stripper. To men like Dean, people like me were invisible. Forgettable. Just part of the background noise of the city.
To learn more about the investigation's progress, I'd deliberately started getting close to Dean. I told myself it was strategic. I needed to know what the police had discovered, what evidence they'd found, how much danger I was actually in.
When I learned he'd come to Willowbend because of Logan's death, fear and guilt consumed me in equal measure. Logan. That name still made my stomach twist.
I felt no remorse for Tara or Raymond. They were guilty. They deserved what happened to them. Raymond had controlled me, drugged me, turned me into something I wasn't. Tara had stolen my identity, lived my life while I suffered. They'd earned their deaths.
But Logan was different. I couldn't forget the horrible scene of his death, his blood-soaked body lying on that floor. The image haunted me every night.
Then something worse started happening. As my feelings for Dean grew stronger, the guilt about Logan intensified. What would Dean do if he discovered the truth? That I'd killed the man he'd trusted, the partner he'd cared about? The thought terrified me more than any other consequence.
Maybe it was the drugs Raymond had forced me to take for nearly two years. Or perhaps pretending to be Tara had scrambled my brain so badly I couldn't separate reality from fiction anymore. Whatever the reason, I'd started experiencing hallucinations.
Sometimes when I showered at night and looked in the mirror, I saw my reflection transform into Tara. Meanwhile, the real Nina stood behind me, dripping wet, staring at me with dead eyes and an accusing expression.
I couldn't see a therapist. Telling someone about these visions was impossible. They might report me. They might realize what I'd done. The secrets would come spilling out, and everything would fall apart.
So I told my mother everything instead. She was the only person I could talk to now. She'd completely lost her grip on reality, couldn't understand anything I said anymore. But somehow, I could understand every bit of her nonsense. Her ramblings made perfect sense to me.
The songs she sang were the lullabies from my childhood. The ones she'd hummed to June and me when we were small.
Her mad words, the phrases everyone else dismissed as crazy talk, they were all connected to our past. She spoke about the boat. About Dad's fishing nets. About summers when June and I would catch fireflies in jars. About winters when the river froze and we'd slide across the ice in our worn-out shoes.
I thought maybe insane people were the lucky ones. They got to forget. They got to live in a reality of their own creation. In my mother's world, June and I were still little girls. June was still alive. We'd never grow up. We'd stay in that safe place forever, before everything went wrong.
Dean finished his investigation after about a week and finally traced everything back to my mother. His efficiency exceeded my expectations. But I'd prepared for this possibility. I'd already arranged everything.
The doctor who performed DNA tests, I'd gone on a date with him. Got him drunk. Switched the comparison results while he was passed out. It had been surprisingly easy. Men were always so trusting when they thought a beautiful woman found them interesting.
I assumed the police would close Nina's case soon, ruling it an accidental drowning. The DNA wouldn't match. There would be no reason to keep investigating. Life could go back to normal, whatever normal meant anymore.
But Dean refused to let it go. He insisted Nina had been murdered. He was determined to find the killer. His persistence was admirable and terrifying at the same time.
As I lived each day in fear, waiting for the other shoe to drop, another unexpected person appeared in Willowbend.
Luka.