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He shakes his head. “I tried to save her, I jumped in after her but I couldn’t find her.” He drops to his knees sobbing and ripping at his hair. River kneels beside him, trying to comfort him but I can’t. I can feel it in the pit of my gut that something terrible has happened, call me crazy but I feel this immense pain in my chest like my heart has been ripped out.
“Son?” I look to the officer on my left, his eyes filled with pity. The sound of my mom’s screams from behind confirm everything I’m feeling but I need to hear the words, I need someone to make it real, to confirm my greatest fear.
“Tell me,” I snap.
“There was an accident, a car went over the bridge with one of the passengers trapped inside—” His mouth continues to move but I hear nothing over the sound of my blood pumping in my ears. When he reaches out and places a hand on my shoulder it pulls me back and I blink a couple times, trying to focus. “We are doing everything we can but we can’t send out a recovery team until the storm passes.”
“A recovery team is for when someone is dead,” I snarl, yanking free of his hold. He nods sadly.
“I’m sorry, son, there is no chance anyone could have survived that fall–”
Cutting him off I ask, “You said one of the passengers?”
“Yes, one was trapped in the car and the driver is being rushed to hospital now.”
“That bitch killed her!” Xander snarls. I look down at my best friend to find him staring at me with hatred in his gaze.
“Who?” I demand.
“Lakeland fucking killed Waverly, that bitch left her in the car to go over the bridge.” I stagger backward, shaking my head denying what he is saying. Lake would never do that, she loved Waverly, they are best friends and closer than her and River are. She would never hurt my sister.
“We have reason to believe the driver was heavily intoxicated–” I snap my gaze back to the officer.
“Do you know that for a fucking fact?” I roar.
“Paramedics are running a tox screen but the smell of alcohol was hard to miss when loading her into the ambulance.”
I want to deny it all, Lake would never do that. She’s responsible and would never risk herself or Wave. She would have called me to come get them if she was drinking. They’re wrong, she would never do this.
“I have to go, I need to go to my sister. I’ll call you from the hospital,” I hear River say as she rushes off to her car but I can’t move. Mom continues to scream behind me. My chest feels like it’s caving in, my heart is beating but I don’t understand how it could possibly continue to beat if what these fuckers say is true. The girl I wanted to ask to marry me and runaway from here, where we didn’t have to worry about her father trying to break us up, she couldn’t have done this.
“I saw Lakeland, Knox. She was there. She did this. Wave is dead and it’s all her fucking fault!” Xander screams. His words slam into me, my legs give out. I feel numb as I stare at Xander breaking before me. Waverly’s gone, my baby sister is gone.
She’s gone.
Lake killed her.
My girlfriend killed my sister.
The sound of ringing pulls me from my thoughts. I look around in confusion, I don’t remember moving into the house or sitting on the sofa. The sound of ringing cuts out only for it to start up again. I realize it’s my phone. I pull it from my pocket, looking around to see Xander sitting in the corner with his face buried in his hand., Taylan is sitting in the tiny kitchen with my mom as she sobs. I answer the call.
“Hello?” My voice sounds hollow and devoid of emotion.
“Knox.” The sound of River’s voice has me sitting up straighter, I need her to tell me that Lake is innocent. I can’t lose them both, it would fucking destroy me. I can’t even comprehend the fact that Waverly is not going to walk through the front door any minute now and shout at me to get off my lazy ass.
“Tell me.”
“Understand that we come from two different worlds. I would give mine up in a heartbeat to live in yours.”
“What the fuck does that mean?” I snap, my patience is non-existent at this point.
“It means I need you to remember that because one day I will make this right.”
“You aren’t fucking making sense!”
“Lakeland won’t ever know the truth, he won’t allow her to. Lake was drunk and lost control, Knox, I’m sorry.”
Lakeland
