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Camile jerks away. “Wow. Okay, then…”
I’ve been a total bitch, but I can’t seem to help myself. It’s like I’m wearing my pain as a knife attached to my wrist and I just keep stabbing at everyone to keep them away.
She gets to her feet. “I guess I’ll see you around.”
I let out a sigh. “Camile…I didn’t mean?—”
But she’s already gone, the door swinging shut behind her.
Fuck.
I put my head in my hands. Maybe I should go after her, but I simply don’t have the emotional or physical strength right now. Besides, what good have other people ever done me? I can only rely on myself. I’m safer alone.
I glance down to my backpack. It contains the basics—my toiletries, my meds, a couple changes of clothes, and the photograph of me and my dad from when I’d been young. Maybe I should be angry at him as well. After all, he was the one who got us involved in all this shit by choosing the career he did—but I know he’s a victim, too.
I’m also going to take my laptop and phone, but then I think old-school and grab one of the branded notepads and pens from the university. I’m not sure I’ll need to leave anyone a note—I certainly don’t plan to leave one here—but it might come in useful.
I have some money. It’s not a lot, but it’ll be enough to buy food and gas until I can find work somewhere.
I long to return to my old friends and home, but I remember the reason I’ve ended up at Verona Falls in the first place and know I can’t. I’ll find work, maybe something that’ll include boarding as well. That kind of work won’t have insurance, plus I’ll need to give a fake name. People do it all the time—illegal immigrants who employers take on for cheap labor—so I can’t see why the same employers won’t take me on as well. I won’t tell them about my epilepsy, of course.
I finger the small heart-shaped necklace with the tiny diamond that sits nestled at the base of my throat. It was a gift from my dad, and I’ve never taken it off. It makes me feel closer to him, and I wish he was still alive. There is so much I want to say to him. I imagine I can convince him to change his life, to make different choices, so Mom never even contemplated taking the actions she did.
I sneak into my mom’s room. Her car keys are in a silver dish near the door. I grab them and slip them into my pocket. Does Nataniele have cameras in here? It wouldn’t surprise me if he does. Or perhaps he allows himself that privacy and just has them everywhere else. I don’t care if they see me stealing the keys. They’re going to know soon enough when they realize both I and the car are missing. Does Nataniele have contacts with the local cops? He’ll issue a ‘be on the lookout’ for me and the car, especially as I shouldn’t be driving. I’ll have to do something to disguise the license plate—cover some of the letters with mud or something so it doesn’t get picked up on any automatic plate recognition camera.
All I want is to put Verona Falls, and everyone it contains, far behind me.
Chapter 6
Tino
I take a breath and knock lightly on her door. “Kenzie? You in there?”
She must be. I’ve not bumped into her anywhere, and no one has seen her. Everyone is talking about the fact she is back from the hospital.
I can’t get any sense of her behind the door, though, and no sounds come from inside. I’ve been feeling like the biggest motherfucker in the world for how we treated her. Sure, it was fun at the time, but we’d have acted differently if we’d known…wouldn’t we? I mean, she nearly fucking died.
I lean in close to the door and press my cheek against the dark wood. “You can hate me however much you want, but I still want to know you’re okay.”
Maybe we’d been idiots thinking we could just go to the hospital and apologize and everything would be okay again. How can things ever be okay? She hates us, and rightly so. And nothing has changed when it comes to Mack’s mother leaving. She’s still here, and Nataniele seems to have doubled down on his insistence that she stays and they redo the wedding—except this time it’ll be a private affair, just them and the witnesses, done in as much secret as possible so no one else gets the chance to fuck it up.
I place my palm against the door and turn slightly to rest my forehead beside my hand. My eyes slip shut.
I know how it is to have to live with something physical. Maybe it’s not the same, but I’m in pain every day, and I work hard to hide it from everyone. I don’t want them to see it as a weakness either. I understand what Mackenzie is experiencing, if only a little. I want to show her the bottle of pills I rely on every day just to function and try to make her see I can empathize with her.
She probably thinks I’m the least empathetic person in the world. Maybe she’s right, for anyone but her.
I straighten, opening my eyes, and try again.
Knock-knock. “Come on, Duchess. Open the door.”
A little farther down the corridor, a door opens, and Dom sticks his head out. I grimace at the sight of him. His left eye is swollen shut, and his lower lip is split. I don’t need to ask what happened to him.
Nataniele happened.
I don’t comment on his face.
“I don’t know where she is,” I say. “No one has seen her.”
