The atmosphere took only a second to change from light to serious and grim. Everybody's eyes were glued on me, expecting further explanation for the sentence I had the confidence to say it out loud.

I took my time to process everybody's reaction and framed my answer in my mind. I want to lay out the fact. I wanted to show them what we all missed.

All of the puzzle pieces were right in front of us this entire time. We were the ones who missed it. We were all driven in the opposite direction and blindly, we all followed the clues. 

"Valerie, honey, I know building suspense is a good feeling when you know something that others don't, but the anticipation is killing me and the others. So, if you don't spill right now, I swear to go-"

"It's Derek. Derek's the killer," I confessed, not wanting Brianna to finish the threat.

This was followed by another long silence. Everybody was frozen, but their expressions had changed. It was visible they were digesting the news and trying to make some sense of it.

Kelly and Blake exchanged uncertain looks. Brianna was staring at nothing, Jordan's eyes were still on me but his face had a quizzical expression. Lenny was the only one who made a movement as he sipped on his glass of water.

I decided to take this opportunity to further state why I had my suspicion on Derek, "While visiting Sarah, Derek was determined to find out what Rosalind spoke of him. At first, I thought that he was just desperate to know what her sister was going through, but after talking to Lola, I saw it with a different angle. Derek was trying to figure out if there were any loose ends he needed to take care of."

"You blamed me too," Lenny spoke. "For a brief amount of time, you thought I was the killer. What if this is just another hunch?"

"It's not," I assured him. "Think about it. We came up with an amazing plan to confront the killer. Why did it fail? Because it was Derek's idea. He knew that he will get caught if he met us at the abandoned kindergarten. So, to avoid that, he hospitalised me, sent Brianna to the city and put Jordan in jail."

Lenny shrugged in reply. Sure, my statement could be argumentative, but everything was there.

Every single thing that happened to us, every single plan that failed, it could all be tied to Derek and it didn't feel nonsense. They all fit together like they were made for each other.

"Derek knew me," Jordan spoke. "The day we met, he immediately recognised me. Rose told me she never mentioned me to her family and friends. She wasn't ashamed of me, she was just ashamed of the circumstances we met in."

"Rosalind never lied," Brianna whispered. "If she said she didn't mention Jordan, she had no reason to lie."

"Exactly. Derek knew who it was because he kept tabs on all of us. He sent a note to Jordan to join us at Picasso for the first time and then we received another note. He has clear access to Rosalind's diary. Nobody would suspect him."

"He could have easily added poison in her food and still go undetected. He lived under the same roof as Rose," Brianna said and I nodded, looking at Kelly.

"We have the how. Now, we need the why," Kelly told us all.

"That's easy. Lola told me Derek's company was suffering a major loss during the time period when Rosalind was depressed. We also know that Mr. McAllister was going to give his company to Rosalind. Which would leave Derek with nothing, so he killed her. He killer her to get the company," I stated. Looking at Kelly for a response.

"That is good," Kelly said.

"But why not just ask?" Lenny questioned all of us. "Rosalind was accepting the company because Derek had his own company and his father's dream was to keep his life-long work within the family. But, we know Rosalind's dream was to become a motivational speaker. If Derek would have asked, she would have happily given it to him."

I squinted my eyes at Lenny. Things were adding up and he had made his life's mission to destroy all of it and get us back to square one.

I applied some pressure on my brain go give him a solid answer. But nothing came up my mind. Rosalind would have done exactly what Lenny stated.

"Why? Why are you crushing out dreams?" Brianna voiced out my concerns.

"Brianna, we are blaming a possible innocent person. Do you think you'll be able to live with yourself if Derek went to jail for a crime he didn't commit?" Lenny argued.

My body tensed up at the statement. I had everything right here. I just had to shape it properly.

Brianna stayed quiet instead of biting back. She knew that Lenny was right. But I also knew that this time I was not wrong.

"While everybody is thinking about it, I would also like to point another thing out," Lenny stated. "How did Derek know about our prior plans? When he didn't know Brianna was murdered."

"He could have bugged the place," Jordan answered.

"No," I sighed. "I checked every nook and corner of my apartment. I didn't find anything."

I shifted uncomfortably at my loss of words. But, a warm hand made me lose the anxiety immediately. I looked up at Blake and blinked back the tears. In return, he just softly smiled and soothingly rubbed the back of my hand with his thumb.

As I eased up a little, I found a new space in my brain that was active. A bolt of energy ran down my spine as I turned my head to Lenny.

"Lenny, do you have something to share with us?" I asked, tightening my grip on Blake's hand. "A confession, maybe?"

"Val, what are you doing?" Brianna asked at my sudden chirpiness.

"There is a reason Lenny has been stating the obvious and it's not to protect Derek. It's to save himself or buy himself enough time to get him out of something."

The smirk on my face widened when Lenny took another sip of his water. I was cornering him and it was working. I didn't mind sharing what I found, but I wanted him to say it out loud.

"'Fess up or else everybody's going to think you are the one who killed Rosalind."

When Lenny realised he was absolutely defenceless and there is nothing he could do to run away, he put the glass of water down and shifted his body to all of us.

"Derek knew Rosalind was murdered the same day we found out," he said. "I was the one who told him. And since then, I've been sharing all of our plans with him and keeping him in the loop."

Everybody's jaw dropped on the floor as he spoke the exact words I had in mind.

"Why would you do that?" Kelly asked.

"Because! Him and I were the only ones who actually loved Rosalind. The two of you left her all alone. He deserved to know that little piece of truth more than you two ever did," he hissed, letting go of all his anger he had pent up.

"That's not true," Brianna whispered. "Just because we weren't there doesn't mean we didn't love her. And, I hate to be the one to tell you this, but you've been useless all along. You weren't there during the main parts of this investigation just how you weren't there to question everybody today."

"Bri," I closed my eyes, keeping my calm and not deviating from the main topic. "Don't go there."

"Why not? He gets to say an untrue statement but I don't get to speak the truth?" She snapped.

I was about to say something but Blake stopped me. "Let them get all the anger out. If Derek did this, we all need to be on the same page."

"Of course," Lenny let out a laugh. "You can never be wrong because you're Brianna fucking Sawyer. The girl who wants everything to do with her previous life because she loved it so much. Is that why you declined attending the funeral when they first visited to ask you?"

Lenny's time was dripping with sarcasm and anger. You could even make it out with his facial expressions. Brianna, however, she was not having it. Not today. I could see the mean girl in her waking up and taking over.

"This is the real you, isn't it? The entire 'I'm such a sweetheart' is just a big facade. You keep your mouth shut the entire time playing the innocent puppy, but when the time comes, you'll bring up every single thing you despised. Well, at least I'm mature enough to speak me feelings even if it hurts somebody. At least, I have the courtesy to always stay honest," Brianna said.

"Now we are talking about your greatness? You seriously consider that trait of yours to be a good one? Darling, that is toxicity," Lenny scoffed.

"Your girlfriend was raped and didn't cheat on you. Yet, you left her. Now, I know that it was difficult for you to accept it that her first child is not going to be your own, but the least you could have done is supported her and help her get through," I whispered. "But what did you actually do? You fought with her, left her. You were one of the reasons she was depressed, not us. So, don't you dare call Brianna toxic."

I looked at my best friend and gave her a comforting smile. Brianna always struggled with the word toxic. That one was of her insecurities and I was not going to let Lenny make her feel that way.

"How can you always come out as a good person? Do you really forget all the bad things you've done in life? Or are you just delusional?"

Blake closed his hands in a fist, controlling his anger. I put my hand on top of his, assuring him that I'll be fine.

"Lenny, you're actually bringing all this up to cover up your mistake, you do realise that, right?" I rose an eyebrow.

"And you're blaming me to to hide up the fact that you mess up."

"Fine. I make mistakes. Major ones. I mess up. But we are all humans. We all make mistakes. None of that makes us a bad person."

"Yeah," Brianna said. "At least we were not the ones who helped a killer get away with murder."

Lenny got quiet at that. I looked at Brianna and she shrugged in return. Jordan sunk deeper in his chair, trying to avoid all the negative emotions that had settled like a cloud above our booth. Kelly pulled her jacket closer, providing warmth for herself and Blake slowly released his clenched fists. 

"Lenny, we don't blame you. It's fine. You didn't know that Derek was using you and taking advantage of your cluelessness. But you had no right to call Brianna toxic."

"This is the time we actually need to stick together," Blake informed all of us. "We need our heads cleared and need to have each other's backs. The past doesn't matter anymore. The future is giving us a chance to make it right and the present is our opportunity to grab."

"Always talks less and yet end up gluing the group together," Brianna smiled. "No doubt ya'll are made for each other."

My face became a darker shade of red by the comment but I quickly hid it by clearing my throat and reminding everybody why we gathered here.  

"The suicide note," Lenny said, looking at me. "Derek was the one who brought it. He could have easily written it down."

"I have the suicide notes and the threat notes at my place. We can match the handwriting," I said, sitting up straight.

"All of this was right in front of us. We are all so gullible," Kelly gritted her teeth. "How could I be so unfocused?!"

"Kelly, no. Nobody is blaming anybody for all the occurrences that happened before this," Blake said. "Let's go."

All of us got up and the moment I stepped out of the diner, I was pulled back by an emotional Brianna who tightly wrapped her arms around me and thanked me for sticking up for her.

I let out a little laugh and hugged her back, patting her back. Lenny apologised for his earlier behaviour and we both forgave him almost immediately.

Driving back home, there was a lost happiness surfacing. We finally made real progress in the case. Now, the only thing needed was solid evidence and Derek was going to go down.

As I parked the car, my other hand dug into my pocket, removing the keys for the house.

It barely took me a second to get the door open and all of them rushed to Kelly's room while I went to my room and opened the drawer, throwing the unimportant junk on my bed.

I punched my nightstand as I got the suicide note and ran to the next room where everybody was was pacing with anticipation. 

"I got it," I smiled.

Kelly grabbed the piece of paper from my hand and placed it next to the note laid on the bed. 

"It's a match!" She announced and we all threw up our hands in success and satisfaction.

We all gathered around the bed, staring at the matching handwriting and looked at each other.

"Let's get the bastard down."

I cannot believe it took me 39 chapters to reveal the killer!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Well, the wait is finally over. You'll know who did it!!

The book is not over yet, BUUUUT thank you to literally everybody who stuck around and read the book.

See you in the next chapter.