AllFreeNovel
Share Us
“How?”
“Lilah.”
“Look. Maybe you knew what Lilah was to us and maybe you didn’t. We all twisted the knife. Any one of us could’ve acted differently and called you out.”
“I told her she doesn’t belong.” Recent events have made it obvious I was speaking about myself.
I’m the one who never belonged.
“And I fully fucking failed to go check on her. Every one of us forced her into that barrel.”
“It’s different.”
“So what? You want to be punished?”
“Yes.”
Hunter’s silent.
I’m less and less able to keep up my act.
My control.
It was all doomed to be shattered the second Lilah returned to my life, and I’m oddly looking forward to the moment she puts me in my place.
I want Lilah to pull the trigger.
Too soon, and we’re at the OCC’s gates.
I shudder.
Hunter drives us through the checkpoints to the performing arts center. “If you don’t want to—”
“I’m going.”
Hunter levels me with a look that drips in his newfound dominance. “You swear on your life you’re good to watch her?”
I tsk.
Swear on something with value.
“I swear on her life.”
“Call if you need anything.”
When I step out of the car, gravity is denser. Feels like my soles are sinking into the sidewalk, my lungs are being crushed under the pressure. Omega scents whirl, growing thicker and thicker as I travel deep into the belly of my nightmare beast.
I take careful steps to her location, passing through a manned metal detector, and trying to stay present as today bleeds into all the days rotting my memory.
A full year of memories.
A year I clung to my Lilac and pretended nothing else was going on. A year it took to find evidence on Renee—to build a case against her that had nothing to do with my truth.
Luckily, she wasn’t just an abuser. She stole to feed her habits. Drugs. Alcohol.
Her “friends” even paid her to use—
Forcing out a shredding breath, I tear myself back to what I think is reality.
