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Ha, that was the joke of the century. She could have almost fooled me if I, myself, hadn’t seen the way Brad treated Maddox. He was neither a caring nor a loving father.
“Well, he has a shitty way of showing it.” I speared her with a look that said I wasn’t falling for her bullshit. “So do you. You’re his mother. You should have done a better job.”
“I know,” she nodded solemnly, “but it’s too late now, isn’t it?”
“It’s never too late.”
“For Maddox, it is. I just wished–”
“What?” I asked, my heart tripping over itself, when she fell silent.
“I wished I could go back and change the past. But then…”
“Then?”
She smiled and patted my hand. “He probably wouldn’t have met you then.”
That was a strange way of putting it and an easy way out for her. I was about to tell her what exactly I thought of such a shitty excuse, when another voice joined us.
“Savannah,” a sing-song voice called out. “There you are, Dear.”
A woman joined us in the corner, looking just as prim and proper as Maddox’s mother. Another elite wife.
She barely spared me a glance and completely ignored my existence. I internally rolled my eyes, but I was starting to get used to it. I didn’t have a rich family last name attached to my first name, so I didn’t matter in their world.
Fine by me. I didn’t want to be friends with these stuck-up, trophy wives anyway.
When I tried to slither away unnoticed, Savannah grasped my elbow and pulled me back. Damn it, why was she being so attentive tonight?
“Lila, meet Anna Carmichael. A close friend of mine.”
Carmichael.
Anna smiled a fake, plastic smile, but I didn’t even notice… didn’t breathe…
Carmichael.
“Oh, there are your boys,” Savannah said. She waved them over, and my entire world suddenly became blurred.
My heart stopped and then it crashed against my rib cage.
Everything happened in slow motion. There was a flimsy barrier over my eyes, and I was watching everything through muddled lenses.
Two men joined us, standing in front of me.
Savannah was talking, but her voice faded away, like I was underwater, and she was screaming from above me.
My flesh crawled, and the urge to scratch and tear my skin off my bones was strong, so very strong.
“This is Anna’s younger son, Rion. He’s the same age as you and Maddox.” She was pointing between the two of them, but I wasn’t really paying attention.
Breathe,
Breathe.
Breathe, Lila. Breathe.
“And this is Christian Carmichael, the older brother. They are Maddox’s childhood friends. The three of them were thick as thieves, back in the day.”
Thud. Thud. Thud.
My chest ached. My scars… burned like someone was pouring gasoline over my torn, opened flesh.
I couldn’t see anything. Everything was so dark… so empty…
I remembered the sound of crushing glass, mixed with the distinct crack of bones breaking. I remembered my mom screaming, and my dad… I remembered…
Pain came next.
My bones and fragile organs felt like they were being smashed and crumbled into a tiny, suffocating box. I couldn’t breathe. It hurt so much. My torso hurt and burned, the pain almost unbelievable. There was a knife dug, painfully, into my chest… no, not a knife… I didn’t know what… but it hurt. It felt like a knife or a hammer being pounded into my chest.
I blinked… forcing myself to breathe. I couldn’t. My lungs contracted with such force that I was afraid they would fold into themselves. When I coughed, agony strummed through my body, and my cracked lips parted with a silent scream.
Mom… Dad…
I couldn’t speak. The buzzing noise in my ears wouldn’t stop.
The taste of coppery blood pooled in my mouth; it tasted bitter, and I could feel it soaking my tongue and the inside of my mouth. Blood…?
No…
How…
What…
I remember…
The fight…snow outside… in the car… mom… dad… me…
I remember the screams…
My bones felt like they had been mangled together, and my chest, it was being carved open. I lifted my head up a bit and looked down at my chest to see… blood. Everywhere. So much blood.
I sucked in cramped air and tried to scream, tried to breathe, but my lungs refused to work.
No. No. No. Please. No. Oh God, no.
MOM, I wanted to scream. DADDY.
The pain never ended. The darkness never faded away.
My world tilted, swaying back and forth, and then crashed.
Christian Carmichael.
Carmichael.
Carmichael.
My gaze found his, and I saw no recognition in his eyes, as he stared at me with avid interest. He didn’t recognize me. Of course, he didn’t.
I was a nobody. Just like… eight years ago.
Christian Carmichael…Maddox’s childhood friend.
My past… my present… my life crumbled around me.
My heart bled at my feet… at Christian’s feet.
Thud. Thud. Thud.
Sourness rose in my throat, and I almost choked on it. Acid clogged my veins, and my body started shaking. Someone was saying my name.
I can’t breathe.
I… can’t… breathe.
