Asher shuts the door. Knox shoves me into the center.
My sobs fade into tremors. My skin burns where Sophie hit me. My throat tastes like blood and bile. I stand there shaking, breath shallow and erratic, the word still burning behind my eyes.
Dead.
Sophie steps forward, hands clasped calmly in front of her.
“You dumb bitch. Do you understand what you just did?”
I stay silent, breathing erratically.
Sophie smiles without warmth. “You fucked up, really bad.”
“He gave me the gun, what the fuck did you think I’d do?” I snap, voice trembling from leftover sobs.
“Well, you could’ve made the correct choice. Instead, you decided to be a disobedient brat.”
I back away a step. Knox and Asher don’t move, they just watch, bored and curious, like this is entertainment.
Sophie takes one slow breath. “He told you the rules and you’ve already broken two.”
“If you’re going to kill me just fucking do it,” I say, even though fear and heartbreak are tightening every muscle I have left. “I’m not afraid of you.”
She tilts her head. “We’ll see about that.”
Her hand moves faster than my eyes can track. Her fist cracks across my face so hard my vision goes white. The sound echoes across the concrete. My head snaps sideways, and I stumble, catching myself on my hands. Pain lights through my jaw. I stand back up.
Sophie’s brows lift.
I swing at her. Just raw, wild momentum tied to grief and rage and disbelief. My fist connects hard with her cheekbone. She staggers half a step.
Knox lets out a low whistle. Asher grins. Sophie touches her cheek with her fingertips. A smear of red appears. Her expression shifts—still calm, but colder, almost offended.
She doesn’t wait. She lunges, grabbing the front of my dress, slamming me against the wall. Air bursts out of my lungs. I claw at her arm, trying to wrench free, but she shoves her knee into my stomach. Pain curls me forward.
I swing again. I catch her in the ribs this time. Her breath hitches. She snarls. She grabs my hair and yanks me upright, slamming the back of my head into the wall.
“Stop fighting bitch,” Sophie grunts.
“Go fuck yourself bitch,” I choke.
She twists me away from the wall and shoves me toward the center of the room. I hit the ground hard, but I kick out, catching her shin.
She grabs my right arm and wrenches it behind my back without warning.
For a second, I don’t feel anything except the weight of it all—
Seth is dead, Seth is dead, Seth is dead—echoing louder than breath or thought. The floor beneath me feels detached. My body is a shell, nothing registers.
Then the angle changes.
The burning pain slices through the numbness like a blade. My shoulder jolts forward on instinct, but Knox steps in, planting a boot beside my knees, blocking any chance of movement. He is a wall. I barely notice. My brain is still stuck in the loop.
He can’t be gone.
He wouldn’t leave me.
He wouldn’t.
