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Remi gasps, but it doesn’t compete with the pain lashing at my insides.
“They made me kill my baby, and then they sent me here.” I say the words, but it’s like it isn’t me. Because no one can survive this twice... the world isn’t that cruel and unfair. Is it?
“And Tim?”
“They forbade me from seeing him again. My parents kept me under house arrest until they sent me here.”
I realize how fucked up it sounds—because it is fucked up. But it was my life. The nightmare I have to carry with me always.
“You must be... I don’t even have words.”
“I’m okay. I’ll be okay.” I have to be. Because I realize now that I don’t want any ties to them. From here on out, I’m no longer their daughter.
Consequences be damned.
“As soon as we graduate,” I say, “I’m going to leave.”
“L-leave? But where will you go?”
“Somewhere far away from here.”
“He needs you, Hads. He isn’t thinking straight right now, but once the dust settles, Cole will come around.”
“I let him hurt me, Remi.”
“What?” She pales.
“The way we are together... intimately. It’s not normal.”
“We all like rough sex every now and again, there’s nothing wrong—”
“Not like this. This is different.” I gently pull down my tank top to reveal Cole’s brand.
“What the fuck is that? Is that a .... no, he wouldn’t.”
“He did. It was punishment. Tim’s been texting me, says he wants to talk. After two years, he wants to talk.” I laugh bitterly, my insides twisting violently. I feel empty, hollow. Completely numb. “Cole found out.”
“Holy shit, Hadley, that’s intense.”
“He’s not like normal people, Remi. There’s this darkness that lives inside him. I think something happened to him when he was younger.”
She considers my words for a minute and then lets out a soft sigh. “I didn’t want to believe it... but I think you’re right.” The truth echoes around us and then she says, “So Cole got rough and thinks he had something to do with you losing the baby?”
I nod again, because I can’t talk over the deluge of tears.
“Oh, Hads. Come here.” She shuffles closer, wrapping her arm around me, and lets me cry.
I cry until there are no tears left, and my eyes are sore and my body is exhausted.
“Sleep,” Remi soothes. “I’ll be right here.”
My eyelids grow heavy as I finally let go of the last few hours. I let it all drift away until there’s nothing left but me and a dark abyss.
And maybe that’s just the way it’s supposed to be.
Chapter Twenty-Four
Conner
