CHAPTER 346: FINAL CALL (4)

Nick’s POV

Reagan continued. "Raymond got out of that mess by paying Jay off with money he didn’t owe. I felt sorry for him, I really did. But he was obsessed with Georgia. And Jay..." He swallowed hard.

"Jay wanted Georgia as payment. Raymond couldn’t stand that idea. So when Jay demanded David’s body to be a punching bag instead, Raymond said yes. He told me Jay just wanted to scare David. He asked if he could bring David to my birthday party. I thought it was nothing serious, just a stupid plan to rough him up a bit."

He looked at me again, eyes bloodshot and heavy with guilt.

"I didn’t know what they were really planning, Nick. I swear on my life, I didn’t know it would end the way it did."

For the first time in years, I didn’t see him as the reckless bastard who ruined everything. I saw a broken man haunted by every wrong turn he ever took—one that, deep down, he wished he could undo.

Reagan’s voice trembled as he continued, his words spilling out like something he’d been holding in for years.

"And then... Nancy," he said, his lips curling into a bitter smile. "She was the center of it all, wasn’t she? She wanted Raymond. You and David wanted her. But she didn’t want either of you. She was in love with Raymond, and she used both of you to make him jealous. It was pathetic, but I still helped her."

He took a shaky breath and went on, "She told me she wanted to expose her own affair to hurt David, to make him pay for what Raymond had to go through because of his debt. David was head over heels in love with her that he was willing to look beyond her sins, so she planned to use you, make you two meet, and catch her in the act.

And I—I was too blind to see how twisted that was. I asked Sarah to help me pull some strings so you’d be made Captain of the ship that night. She managed to convince her father to approve the change to the manning plan.

I thought I was doing something harmless. Just setting up some drama between the three of you. And if that happens, I get my little revenge on you. Worst case was that you’ll get an assault charge, but it’s bailable and will only make you do community service. I was so childish to be satisfied in making your life miserable in that way. I swear, Nick, I didn’t know what was really going to happen."

My jaw clenched. I didn’t interrupt him. I couldn’t.

"I thought Nancy just wanted you to catch her kissing David. Knowing you back then, you’d lose your temper, you’d throw punches, he’d fight back—it would be messy, but that’s it. I wanted to see you fall apart. I was angry. I envied you so much I could barely breathe. But I was too much of a coward to fight you myself. So I used David."

He looked at me, his eyes filled with regret and self-loathing.

"I thought watching him hit you would be enough to satisfy me. A pathetic kind of revenge. Nancy told me she just wanted to see you both fight so she could use that as an excuse to push you away, to get rid of both of you. I believed her. I believed everything."

He shook his head slowly, tears finally spilling down his face.

"But her real plan was darker. She wanted David to be beaten so badly that she could turn around and blame you and Raymond. She wanted to punish him for choosing someone else. And Georgia would also break up with him for setting up her brother.

But it got out of control. Jay’s men... they took it too far. After you and David fought, they stepped in and finished what she started. David didn’t stand a chance. He was beaten to death, and they pinned it all on you."

Reagan’s voice cracked as he said the next part. "I found out after discovering his death when Raymond went to me in panic. He also didn’t expect that to happen; it was before they threw his body into the ocean. I could have stopped them. But I didn’t. They told me to keep quiet, and I did. Because I wanted you to pay. I wanted you to feel what I felt, to lose everything."

He covered his face with his cuffed hands, sobbing. "I was evil, Nick. I didn’t want to be, but I was. I was so blinded by envy, greed, and hate that I let it destroy everything good in my life. I was so busy resenting you, I never saw how lucky I was—that Dad accepted me, that I had a home, a name, a family, and siblings whom, if only I treated right, could’ve been my best friends. All I saw was that one damn lie, and I let it poison me."

He looked up again, eyes red and raw. "So no, I won’t ask for your forgiveness. I don’t deserve it. I deserve to suffer for what I did. To live the rest of my life knowing I caused all this pain. I deserve to die alone, Nick. Just like the monster I became."

For a long time, I couldn’t speak. I just sat there, watching him crumble, his regrets flooding the room.

And in that silence, I realized—I wasn’t much different from him.

I, too, had spent years filled with anger. I hated him for taking what I thought should’ve been mine—my father’s pride, my mother’s rightful place. I hated him and his mother for being the one standing beside our father while my mother hid in the shadows. I hated him for simply existing.

But seeing him now—broken, stripped of everything but his truth—something inside me shifted.

I saw the boy I grew up with—the one who laughed with me, fought me, envied me, and in the end, was just as lost as I once was.