Page 17 of What They'll Say About Us

"I don't know how we fell apart so fast, but I don't think I handled our breakup very well."

"You handled it the way you always did when something didn't go your way. You lashed out and then you ran, leaving damage in your wake. You know what my friends used to call you? Hurricane Tessa, beautiful but in the end, deadly."

His words stabbed me like a knife to the heart. "Is that really what you thought about me?"

"Can you say I'm wrong?" He threw the challenge down. When I didn't reply, he said, "I have to get back to work." And this time, I didn't try to stop him.

It took me a minute to pull myself together and then I left the bar, feeling ridiculously shaken and also hurt. But as I stood outside, I also started to feel angry.

Our breakup had not been one-sided. To have everything dumped on me didn't feel fair.

Needing to walk, I headed down the sidewalk in the direction of the hotel, my turbulent thoughts driving my fast pace. I hadn't expected Liam to be friendly, but I also hadn't thought he'd be so hostile. Nine years had passed since we'd broken up, but his anger with me felt as strong as if we'd seen each other yesterday. I didn't get it.

Then I started to wonder if his anger hadn't been about hurting me but about getting me to leave, to drop the investigation. Had he been lying about Paige's texts? About their relationship? Was he afraid that my talking about the case might reveal something he wanted to keep buried?

Or was I trying to create a mystery so that I wouldn't have to face the fact that I'd had a shitty breakup and my ex-boyfriend still hated me for it?

I was so lost in thought that it wasn't until I heard someone yell that I woke up and realized I was in the middle of the street and a car was speeding straight toward me.

Chapter Six

I jumped out of the way just in time, tumbling onto the pavement near the curb, as the car narrowly missed me. I lay there dazed, my hands and knees stinging as a young man and woman rushed over to help me.

"Are you hurt?" the woman asked. "You almost got hit by that car."

"Do you need me to call 911?" the man asked. "Are you hurt?"

"I—I think I'm okay." I took his hand as he helped me to my feet. My knees were bruised, and one was bleeding, but otherwise I was intact.

"Are you sure you don't want us to call the police?" the woman asked worriedly. "That car could have killed you."

I looked back at the street where traffic was now flowing normally but saw some people on the other side of the street looking in my direction. Glancing back at my rescuers, I said, "Did you see what kind of car it was?"

"It was black, low to the ground, some kind of sedan," the man said.

"What about the person driving it?"

The two exchanged a look, then the man said, "We didn't see. It all happened so fast."

"It's crazy how people speed right through red lights," the woman said. "Are you sure you don't want to talk to the police? Maybe they can find the car."

Before I could answer, a patrol car stopped and a young male officer got out. "What's going on?" he asked. "We got reports of a hit-and-run."

"I wasn't actually hit. But a car ran the red light, and I jumped out of the way," I told him.

"Do you need a medic?"

I shook my head. "No, I'm all right."

"You're bleeding."

"It will be okay. Are there cameras at this intersection? Do you think you could find the car that almost ran me down? They said it was a black sedan."

"We can check. What's your name?"

"Tessa Conway," I said as he made a note of that.

"Do you have ID?"