Page 112 of Camera Stays On

It was slow to get to the point, but I knew, in my heart of hearts, this was the video that Asher hadn’t wanted me to see. The one Sawyer shouldn’t have filmed.

The very one that incriminated Asher in the murder of my mother’s boyfriend.

Sawyer knew if I were given the choice, I wouldn’t choose to watch it, so he was forcing it on me.

The black screen flickered, and the camera turned on.

“Where are we going?” Sawyer’s voice called from behind the camera. I recognized it instantly. He attached the camera to his bike, and they were pedaling away from the movie theater.

“I already told you, loser. Come on, we need to be fast.” Young Asher tore at my heart as he turned to glare at his brother. “And shut that fucking video off.”

Of course, Sawyer didn’t. He never turned the camera off.

My pulse rushed, and my stomach twisted as they reached my house and the camera flicked off. A second later, it turned back on, and a young Sawyer set the camera down on what looked like my living room television. He smiled at the camera and moved away, revealing the full room.

Ray lay on the couch, asleep, with a beer in his hand, dripping onto the floor.

“Wakey wakey!” Sawyer cried out. Behind Ray was a dark shadow, coming from the dining room. My breathing became labored as Asher stepped into the room, his arms up, holding something just out of view of the camera.

My stomach dropped hard and violently as Ray started to get up, but it was too late. Asher swung an axe down, hitting Ray in the shoulder. A cry escaped my lips, and I covered my mouth as I looked away. The sounds of bone colliding with metal caused me to close my eyes. Two days ago, I would have been inconsolable. But having been witness to so many horrors in the last few days, I was starting to go numb. The squelching sound followed by screams of utter terror and pain erupted from the TV.

I lurched forward, but the shackles around my legs forced me to remain seated. I couldn’t watch this. I closed my eyes and covered my ears with my hands, but it was pointless. The video was loud. Ray’s screams and Asher’s angry shouting filled my brain, and soon I found myself sobbing.

Not for Ray, but for the monster I’d drawn from Asher. He wouldn’t have felt the obligation to save me if I hadn’t revealed what Ray had done to me.

I sat there as the video looped again and thought about everything. All the moments I’d missed, not realizing just how much Asher cared for me. The dance where he’d stayed with me when Sawyer left. Studying together because Sawyer refused, teaching me how to drive when Sawyer didn’t want to, making dinner with me when I was home alone. I’d been so oblivious to it all because I thought it was Sawyer who’d saved me that night.

I’d felt so obligated to love a man I thought had murdered for me, when all the while I’d been slowly falling for the one who actually had. My tears turned from fear to heartbreak as I wondered about his fate.

Please, don’t let Sawyer have hurt him. I needed to tell Asher I forgave him for everything.

Entirely lost in thought, I didn’t hear the door open and Sawyer come in.

“Now that you’ve seen what he really is, do you understand why you can’t be with him? Once he realized you weren’t going to be won over by this, he tried to sabotage our wedding.”

I turned away from the TV to look up at him. Blinking the tears away, I stared past him. The memory of the night before our wedding hit me all at once.

Asher had tried to help me that one last time. How had I not seen it? Seen him?

The video looped again, and when Asher swung the axe down, Sawyer motioned to the TV.

“Who would want to be with a monster like that?”

I would.

Chapter 52

Asher

Five Years Ago

JUST FUCKING DO it.

Stop being a coward and do it. She can’t go through with this. You have to stop it.

I paced in front of my truck, waiting for Purdy to get out of class. It was almost eleven p.m., and the campus was mostly silent, except for an occasional student trying to get back to their dorm. I hadn’t even had classes today, but Sawyer mentioned he was too busy with wedding prep to come get her, so she’d be taking the bus back to her place. With the bus schedule, she wouldn’t see her apartment until at least one in the morning—the night before her wedding. That was just cruel.

Finally, the doors of the building flew open, and people filed out in a loud chatter. I paused my pacing and dug my hands into my pockets, leaning against the grille of my truck.