Chapter 19: His Broken Heart

**Bianca**

Robert adamantly shook his head. "I-It wasn't me. I mean, it was me but I didn't know there was someone else coming. I mean, it made sense in retrospect but I wasn't thinking. I was only focused on following orders and figured my clients must know what they're doing."

We sat outside the shop. Robert sat on the ground, his fingers attached to his hair.

Avery and I stood over him like police officers as he rambled on. He had to put his hand on Robert's shoulder to stop him from talking further.

"Slow down, Robert," he said. "I need you to tell us what happened in order. We're not here to arrest you. We only want the truth."

Of course that was a lie. I had the recorder turned on and hidden behind me. I promised to prove my innocence, and I'd be damned if I can't even keep a promise to myself.

"Start from the beginning. You said you were doing as you were told? Were you working for someone?"

Robert nodded. His hands trembled. He couldn't look either of us in the eyes.

"Is that a 'yes'?" Avery asked. "Tell me the details about your job. What were you hired to do?"

Robert inhaled a deep breath before he could respond. "I was hired as a chauffeur and given a car to drive her around town. She entered the car and told me where to take her. Every once in a while she would tell me to slow down and check her phone. It's as if she was checking something. Then out of nowhere, after we turned off the highway to drive on that road on the side of the hill, she told me to speed up. I tried to tell her that there were a lot of corners and we needed to be careful since it just started to rain. She said that doesn't matter. 'This will be perfect', she said. They appeared out of nowhere, I swear they did! The wet road made the car hard to stop. I blocked their way. They turned to avoid the crash… then… then she screamed and… we had to get away, faster than before. She paid me off to keep my mouth shut. I couldn't say no with my sister in the hospital.I didn't mean to…"

"Let's stay on track. You keep saying 'she' and 'her'. I need to know her name. What is it?"

To our surprise, Robert shook his head.

"I can't tell you when I don't know myself. She only allowed me to call her 'Miss' or 'Madam' when addressing her. She told me her name when she hired me but I've long since forgotten about it. I remembered thinking it sounded strange, like something out of a fairytale."

Avery and I exchanged confused glances. How is this supposed to bring us closer to the culprit?

"I still have her number saved in my contacts."

Our necks nearly snapped due to how quickly our heads turned to him. I reached out my hand. He slowly slid the phone out of his pocket. He hesitated to give it to me so I grabbed it out of his hand.

The contact number on screen wasn't one that I recognized. I showed it to him. "Is this the one?"

He nodded but paused before choosing to reply verbally instead. "Yes. That's the exact one with the name 'Fairytale Madam'."

I checked the contact again, replaying all the numbers I knew by heart. Nothing seemed to match up.

I passed the phone over to Avery. Two seconds. Three. Four. Then, he gasped.

"I know who it is. I… I've been walking around with my eyes closed all this time. Is there anything else you want to tell me? Anything else you can tell us?"

Robert shook his head. "I stopped being a chauffeur after that accident. Driving a car again didn't feel right so now I work on them instead."

"Then we're done here." Avery snapped a picture of his phone screen before giving it back to him. "If you know what's good for you, stay out of trouble and stay in town. You may not be solely responsible for what happened but you're not entirely innocent either."

Avert started walking off without so much of a farewell. I started to walk off too, but I stopped and turned around.

"Oh, and Robert?"

He looked up.

"I've looked into your background. You've never had a sister. You were just greedy.

My statement seemed to put him in more peril. His trembling got worse. With a nod at Avery, we left.

As we walked to where my car was parked, Avery started mimicking Robert's actions by running his fingers through his hair multiple times. Goddess. Shit, shit, shit! How am I going to explain this now?"

"Avery, if you keep this up you might be sharing a room with that guy in the future."

He sighed. "This is horrible, Bianca."

"How can that be? We finally have a huge hint as to who the culprit could be. And you know who it is, right? How can it be bad?"

"Because it's Conroy's girlfriend, Cinderella."

Excitement trickled away until there was no color in my skin. My gaze was fixed on him, trying to read his facial expressions. He looked more distressed than I had ever seen him.

"The new girlfriend that you told me about? But why would she do that then still have the nerve to get into a relationship with Conroy?"

"I don't know. But it's odd how she swooped in and was there for some right after you two broke it off. And Conroy kept refusing to tell me the name of the person who told him that you were to blame. Maybe she did and he was trying to protect her because he knew I'd ask a bunch of questions? If she had a part to play in this then… it will break his heart."

*And you don't want to see Conroy suffer again, do you?* I wrapped my arm around his elbow, startling him. I smiled. "Then let's not say anything until we have undeniable proof. At the end of the day, Avery, he deserves to know the truth."

He sighed, agreeing. "I just hope I'll actually be able to pick up all the pieces this time."

I was about to say that tending to Conroy's broken heart wasn't his job, but I kept my mouth shut. He didn't need that right now. An ear to listen to his problems seemed better at the moment.

So I held his arm as a form of reassurance until we got to the vehicle. I hoped he didn't mind.