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“Ma’am?”
“I just wanted to say—” That I feel like something terrible is happening. That I went to the bakery to work on a cake, and while it was rising, I was running out of time. The last thing I want is to be dramatic and give in to hopelessness, but…I don’t want to add any more regrets to my list. “I wanted to thank you for bringing Lydia to see me. And for everything else.”
His eyes catch mine one more time in the mirror. “I’m honored to do it, Elise.”
I dial Charlotte’s number.
She picks up on the first ring. “Elise. I was just about to call—did someone—where are you?”
There aresirensin the background of the call. Charlotte’s voice is thick with suppressed tears and nerves. My heart races, ticking against my ribs a million times a minute. Charlotte’s pregnant. This call could be— “I’m with Lydia, on the way to my parents’ house. What’s happening? Are you okay?”
Charlotte takes a long, deep breath. “Yes. I’m okay. Everything with me is fine. But—Elise. There was a fire.”
“Oh my God. At your place?”
“No. At Bettencourt International.”
I stare through the front windshield. “When?” It’s a workday. People would have been in the office. Bettencourt International has thousands of employees, and there’s no telling how many of them were in the office today. “Was anyone hurt?”
“Gabriel was at the Bettencourt building when the fire caught. He—he made it out, but—”
“What happened? Charlotte, tell me. Please. Right now.”
“He jumped from a second-story window to get away from the fire.”
“No.” My voice doesn’t sound like mine. It sounds more like Lydia’s. Shocked. Disbelieving. There was nothing my dad could do to surprise me, but this washim.I know it was. I gave him the plan to kill Gabriel’s parents when I was six. All he had to do was recycle it, and hedid.“Charlotte—”
“He’s alive.” My best friend is abruptly calm. Charlotte learned this from her mother. I was never that close with mine. I was being brought up for other, better things.
Oh, God.
“Elise? He’s alive. Jameson’s with him. We’re on our way to the Bettencourt building.”
“I’ll be there as soon as I can.”
I hang up the phone and dig my fingers into my hair. Idon’tscream.
Lydia looks at me, wide-eyed and nervous. “What happened?”
“There was a fire at Dad’s office building. Gabriel was trapped inside. He jumped out one of the windows to escape.”
Lyd covers her mouth with her hand. “Is he…is he going to be okay?”
I look into my sister’s eyes and tell her the truth. “I don’t know.” Then I lean up between the front seats. “Mark, turn around. I need you to take me to Bettencourt International. Run all the red lights.”
2
GABRIEL
I’m falling,and then I’m not.
There’s a breeze in my face, air scissoring through my shirt, and then I’m not careening toward concrete, it’s coming tome.
Fuck, it’sfast.
No, fuck—
It hits like a sledgehammer. Like a semi with the driver asleep at the wheel, the gas pedal on the floor. Like the fucking wrath of God, if God existed, and he crushed me in his fist.
