"Matt? The police report places you at the hotel before us. Surveillance confirmed it." Her voice trembled. "Why didn't you ever tell me?"
Matthew's jaw clenched, his mind visibly racing. "I was worried about you, Joanna. I went to check on you. I kept it secret because... I couldn't bear making you relive that night."
Joanna fell silent.
She flipped another page, her finger landing on a medical report. "But according to the toxicology screening, Asher was admitted with the same substance in his system. He was a victim too." She looked up, suspicion creeping into her tone. "And your arrival time predates ours..."
Matthew flushed a deep, guilty crimson.
"It's fake! It has to be fake!" he blurted, panic rising. "Don't you see? Asher told the police he was drugged to cover his tracks! He staged it to escape suspicion!"
Excuses spilled from him like water from a cracked dam.
Surprisingly, it worked. Joanna's suspicion flickered and died. Years of dependency on Matthew, his carefully cultivated "savior" image, outweighed the cold facts on paper. She suppressed her doubts and turned her fury back on me.