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All of it.
I glance at Mara, staring at the stranger I believed was my best friend and not wanting to believe she could do this to us. Not understanding why she would.
How could she do this to me?
How could she lie and say she was protecting me?
How could she look at my face all weekend and know what was coming?
Then, I look at Austin. In the front seat, he’s staring straight ahead with his jaw set, eyes vacant and cold. I trusted him. Trusted all of them.
When I check over my shoulder, risking a glance at Memphis despite the fact that I’m not sure I can bear to look at him right now, it’s clear he feels the same way.
We trusted them, and now we’re going to be killed because of it. Or worse.
It’s clear neither Austin nor Mara can bear to look at us or the bodies of our friends. Both are staring blankly ahead, doing everything in their power to avoid it.
I can’t blame them. I can’t bring myself to look at their bodies, either. Our friends. I can’t make myself process the fact that they’re gone. I’m actively fighting the urge to check them both for a pulse.
We’re driven back to the house, and the man steps from the car, opening the back door for us to step out.
Mara points the gun in our direction, nodding for us to do what we’re told. “Go.”
This can’t be happening. Hours ago, hell, minutes ago, I would’ve trusted this girl with my life. I would’ve fought for her. Died for her. I wasn’t willing to leave her behind.
Now, she has a gun pressed into my back as we make our way into the house where we’ve shared so many happy moments, where I felt safe sleeping next to her just last night.
Inside, she lowers the gun, and they spread out around us. I hear the sound of footsteps before I see the woman rounding the corner from the living room. The woman I tried to protect, who I believed was dead. The woman I’d grieved because I thought I failed her. And here she is, alive and well. All of this is happening because I tried to help her. Because I cared.
“Took you long enough,” she says with a sigh when Austin shuts the door, and suddenly we’re cloaked in the silent stillness of the house.
“Yeah, well, your little prodigies needed some time to get it together.” The man casts an angry glance our way with a flick of his wrist.
“We didn’t mean to, we just… I wasn’t expecting him to kill Ethan.” The tears in Austin’s eyes seem real. As if he might actually have a heart.
“I didn’t,” the man says casually. “She did. I killed the other two.”
“Nathaniel!” The woman’s eyes draw a line between Memphis and me. “The others? You said we’d give them more time.”
“I tried, but I couldn’t. They knew not only about Ethan but about Samuel and Elizabeth. They knew what we’d done.” He shakes his head, massaging his temple. “I promise you, it doesn’t matter. They either leave with us, or they don’t leave. That’s the rule. They wouldn’t listen to reason. Just like my brother and that horrid wife of his. They had to be taken care of. Eradicated before they caused further harm.” He takes both of her cheeks in his hands and presses a kiss to the space between her eyebrows.
“Your brother and his wife? You mean the Hawthornes?” I ask. “Samuel was your brother?”
“Unfortunately,” Nathaniel says with a shrug. “But he was never worthy. He neverbelieved.” He holds his hand up in front of his face as he says the word, fingers pressed together as if he were mimicking a chef’s kiss. “Never wanted to help me. When he thought I’d killed Vanessa, they hid in their house to confront me, but goodness always wins over evil.”
“He told me he didn’t know you,” I say, filled with a new disgust for him. “I described you to him, told him you were staying in his house, and he must’ve known who you were, but he lied. You were his brother. He tried to protect you, and you killed him.” I shake my head, my heart so heavy I feel like I could burst. “He was protecting you,” I repeat, hoping to make it sink in. Based on the blank look I’m receiving, I know it isn’t. “How could you?That’s not goodness. It’s not.” My voice is breathless and full of pain. If he’s going to kill me, I want him to understand the weight of everything he’s done. “He wasn’t evil. You are.”
“I think you’ll find you’re quite wrong about that.” He gives me a maniacal grin.
“What are you talking about?” Memphis asks between tight lips.
“We’ll explain it all. You can give them some space,” he says, and Austin and Mara step away from us at once, as if we were flames and being near us was singeing them. He waves a hand, telling us we should sit in the two chairs in the foyer.
I can’t avoid looking at her anymore. I have to know. I have to hear this from her. “You were working with them the entire time?” I ask Mara, my eyes filling with tears at the betrayal. “I thought you were my best friend. I trusted you. I cared about you.”
“I am, Lena,” she says. “I am your best friend. I swear I care about you just as much as I always have. I’d never hurt you. I’m trying to help you.”
“I don’t understand.” I glance down at the gun in her hand.
