Chapter 25 Confessions

• The sun had barely begun to peek over the horizon when I slipped out of bed, careful not to wake Lachlan, who was still sleeping peacefully beside me. The house was still quiet, the only sound the distant hum of the generator that kept the lights on and the air conditioning running. I padded across the cool tile floor, the laptop waiting on the desk in my room beckoning like a siren's call.
• As I settled myself in the chair, the laptop screen casting a soft glow over my face, I couldn't shake the feeling of unease that had been building within me since Lachlan's confession the night before. I knew that I needed to confront the reality of the man I had come to know, to dig deeper into the darkness that had haunted his past and now seemed to threaten to consume his present.
• I started with the most obvious search terms, typing "Lachlan McIntyre" and "unsolved crimes" into the search bar. The results were immediate and overwhelming, a laundry list of articles and news stories that seemed to span the globe. I scanned the headlines, my heart pounding in my chest as I took in the sheer magnitude of the allegations that were being leveled against him.