Page 265

“Look at me, sweetheart,” he says softly. “Max, look at me.”

I lift my chin to him, searching his face through the tears blurring my vision.

“You can do this,” he assures me, gently brushing a tear from my cheek. “Just try to remember. Take your time.”

I nod, swallowing past the tears burning in my throat.

At first, there’s nothing but a blur of disconnected images, none of them making much sense. Still, the longer I try to piece together this week’s events, the more memories surface. Little things I’d forgotten. Things I hadn’t even realized were buried somewhere in my mind. The pieces slowly begin to fall into place.

“Then Amber gave me a lift,” I manage, my throat painfully tight.

Milo doesn’t say anything, only tightens his hold on me.

“She was beside herself after Brooke died. She was so angry. So very angry. She ran us off the road. We almost crashed.”

My breathing grows ragged as another memory begins to emerge, clearer than the others.

“We got out of the car,” I continue, my voice barely audible. “And I was going to leave. I was going to walk away, but then…”

“She said something to trigger you,” Sienna says, lowering herself onto the grass beside me just as the distant wail of sirens cuts through the night. “What was it?”

“She… she told me she knew why I was going after them,” I stammer. “She knew… she knew what I’d done to Brooke. She wasn’t going to let it go.” I stare at Sienna through my tears.

“So when she got out of the car, you climbed into the driver’s seat. You started the engine and went after her, pinning her against a tree.” Sienna pauses, struggling to get the next words out. “And then you waited. You stood there until you heard her take her last breath. Only then did you leave the car behind, walk back to the road, and return to the B&B for your reading.”

Tears spill down my cheeks as I slowly nod.

I remember.

I remember the sound of the engine. The headlights sweeping across the trees. Amber turning toward me, realizing far too late what I was about to do.

I also remember the silence afterward.

God, it was so quiet. So very quiet.

Milo takes my hand and brings it to his lips, pressing a tender kiss to my fingers as though he could somehow soothe the pain of each memory as it surfaces.

“Then, when I left for Boston, you went to the bonfire, even after I asked you not to,” Sienna continues, recounting the events of my manuscript as though she’s memorized every word. “And that’s where you ran into Delaney.”

“She practically charged at me, and we started fighting,” I mutter softly. “She almost got the better of me, too. But she realized too late that I’d spent years making sure I would never be that helpless girl again. I wasn’t someone she could overpower so easily anymore.”

Sienna takes a fortifying breath.

“You even pretended to let her go.” Her voice quivers, but she forces herself to continue. “You wanted her to fear you, the same way she’d made you fear her all those years ago. But that wasn’t enough. You wanted her to believe she’d escaped. You wanted to give her that little bit of hope before taking it away.”

“She could never get away,” I whisper under my breath.

“When she turned her back, you picked up a rock and struck her with it. And when she fell, you kept hitting her.” Sienna’s voice trembles. “You didn’t stop until she could barely move. Then you took one of the nooses hanging among the bonfire decorations, put it around her neck, and strung her up.”

A strangled sound escapes my throat.

“She was still alive. While everyone was partying, she was fighting for her life. But you just stood there, watching her struggle until her body finally stopped moving.”

I nod again, remembering Delaney’s face. The blood. The way her eyes stared at me after the life had been drained out of them.

For so many years, I’d imagined what it would feel like to finally have the upper hand over someone who’d made my life a living hell.

I never imagined I’d take so much joy out of it.