I grip the scissors with as much strength as I can muster and stab blindly.
I can’t breathe.
My chest is convulsing, begging, pleading for air.
The scissors catch his hand, his arm, or maybe his shoulder.I can’t see enough to tell, but he releases my throat.
Every breath is fire burning through me.
There’s a thump, and the weight disappears off my back.I want to turn, make sure he’s not going to try to kill me, but I can’t move.Can barely breathe.
Darkness fades in.
* * *
You did it!You’re a hero.
you can’t end it there!(go to 72)
go back(go to 65)
In the hours after, arrests were made, statements were taken, and Sterling was left to make the last call he’d ever wanted to make.
Mia was dead.
Emergency services was only able to tell him so much—multiple stab wounds, a crushed windpipe, head trauma.Blood under her nails and tongue.She’d put up a hell of a fight.
One she lost.
The sound her mother made over the phone tore through him, and he knew he’d be hearing it in his nightmares for years.
He shouldn’t have left her.He should have protected her.
He never should have asked for her help.
Years of keeping his distance, only to betray himself, but when they’d stood in that elevator, Mia flustered and bright—beautiful as ever—he couldn’t stop himself from storming into Monica’s office and demanding she end whatever petty scheme had been holding Mia back.He should have discovered it sooner.He’d been the one to convince Monica to hire Mia; it shouldn’t have taken two years to help her.
Disgraceful.He’d known about her crush, flattered himself with it, and now she was gone.
All because of him.
Hal was nowhere to be found in the aftermath, and in the coming days, Sterling would be haunted by discovering that Hal wasn’t a Hal at all, and he’d known exactly how to keep his face away from the cameras.
He had known something was wrong, but he pushed aside his instincts to play hero—a ridiculous, overwhelming instinct he’d followed his whole life.He trusted it would carry him safely, as it always had.
He’d been wrong.
Mia hadn’t been though.She’d gotten the entire confession on tape, and Hal must have cared more about making his getaway than checking her pockets because the EMT found it, still recording, and passed it to Sterling.It wasn’t protocol, but he still had friends and favors, and he’d pull every single one of them to make sure she hadn’t died in vain.
When the press requests flooded in, asking for his firsthand account of the day, he rejected them all, not wanting to relive it beyond the dreams he frequently woke up from in a sweat.But he couldn’t let her pass quietly, and so he began to talk, about her tenacity and spirit, her quick thinking in the moment, and ultimately, her kindness.
He’d long suspected love to be at the core of his boxed-up feelings about her, despite how little they’d known each other.There wasn’t any way to explain it, and now there was no way to know if she could have loved him back.
One thing he was certain of: Mia had thought he was a good man, and he would spend the rest of his life living up to that.
Congratulations on reaching one of the few “bad” endings in this book.You can thank my friend, who talked me into writing this, as they love consequences.If you, like me, hate bad endings, please accept my deepest apologies and make yourself feel better by going back and making a different choice.
THE END
