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He grinned at me, his spit flecking my face as he laughed. “Everything. Every sad, sorry little thing about your pathetic life. I even showed her your bedroom growing up. Pretty Lily left quickly after that. If she wasn’t scared of you before, I’m sure she is now. In fact, I’m sure she’s on her way to warn all the relevant people who exactly they’ve welcomed into their nice little town.”
His words were a sucker punch. I released him, shock slackening my muscles.Everything.He’d told Lily everything. She knew everything.
“Why?” The word slipped past my lips before I could call it back.
Jack sneered at me and then shrugged. “Because you, golden boy, shouldn’t get to be happy. You bit the hand that fed you, and now you’ll deal with the consequences.”
He stepped back and straightened his jacket. Peering past my shoulder, he whistled. “Looks like your teammates are about to join us. I’ll go. I wouldn’t want to embarrass you, boy. You’re doing that just fine yourself.”
With that, he turned and walked away, leaving me bleeding.
Lily had gone to Midnight searching for dirt on me, clearly, and in return, she’d found out everything. My whole, sorry life, laid before her for her to scorn. For her to pity. For her to fear. My heart twisted; my chest ached. It hurt. It actually fucking hurt. Right or wrong, it felt like a betrayal, and there was only one way to answer it.
Retaliation. My little Ladybug had claws after all, and I’d underestimated her. She had information on me now, damaging information that could see my dreams come shattering down. I couldn’t let her use it.
This time, I wasn’t holding back. She needed to fear me, and this time, she would.
Lily
I studied hardfor a test I had on Thursday and kept my head down. Cayden was busy at practice before the away game, and after, I’d barely seen him. Now it felt like he was the one avoiding me.
His secrets lay inside me like undetonated bombs. I didn’t know what to do with the information that I’d gotten on him. I felt sick when I thought about it. The newspaper was rolled up and hidden inside a sock, in the back of an old box in my wardrobe, and right now, I’d be fine with never seeing it again.
Had Cayden really killed his foster parents when he was eight? The newspaper had seemed to imply that the public sure thought so. And what had Jack meant about his foster family being cutters? Was that what the scars on his back were from? And his mother OD’d? There was too much trauma to unpack, and I couldn’t handle it. Instead, I went through the motions of normal life while my brain felt like a broken record, returning again and again to Uncle Jack’s rancid trailer.
On Friday, at lunch, me and Eve ran into Ellen outside the cafeteria. The girl who’d started my journey to Midnight Falls in the first place. She was talking to Josh, who had a bandage across the bridge of his nose.
“Oh my God, Josh, are you okay?” I asked immediately. I hadn’t noticed that he was injured before.
He shrugged. “Sure, it was a few days ago, it’s just annoying now.”
“A few days ago?”
“After the game on Monday,” he clarified.
Something that felt like fear skittered down my spine. “How did it happen?”
“I was mugged in the parking lot. Except the mugger didn’t take anything.”
Josh’s tone was hard to read. Did he suspect Cayden? After how aggressive he’d been toward Josh in the game, it was hard not to suspect him.
“Before you ask, I didn’t get a look at the guy.”
“Oh, that’s a shame. Anyway, don’t let me keep you. I have your jersey in my locker, freshly washed.”
“I’ll get it next time. I still need to grab food before lunch is over.”
He and Ellen walked off, and I watched them go.
“I didn’t know they were friends,” Eve remarked and slid her arm through mine, steering me toward our lockers. “Do you think it’s odd timing? You wear Josh’s jersey, Cayden loses it, and Josh ends up with a broken nose?”
“No, I mean, it’s probably just a coincidence,” I muttered, trying to convince myself as much as her.
“Right, like that family’s house burning down.” Eve snorted.
Fear shot through me. I pulled her to a stop in a secluded alcove.
“Look, I don’t think we should talk about that, at all, especially not here. First of all, what eight-year-old can be responsible for anything? Eight is a child. Second, if it’s really true that Cayden is dangerous, I don’t want you on his radar.”
