“Holden,” I said, reaching over to turn the music down. “Can you take me to the other side of town? I… I need to see Austin. I need to thank him. For everything he did.”
Holden glanced at me, his expression tightening with hesitation. “Now? Are you sure you’re ready for that?”
“Yeah,” I nodded. “I haven’t talked to him since… everything. He did so much for me.”
Holden was quiet for a moment before sighing. “Okay. But don’t take too long. Mom will bite my head off.”
I focused on my breathing as we drove. I wasn’t sure why my nerves felt so tight, only that I hadn’t spoken to Austin since the night I begged him not to send me to the program. Would he see me differently now? He said he wouldn’t. But that was before he’d seen everything.
“Here is fine,” I said once we reached his street.
Holden frowned slightly as he slowed. “You sure? The address you gave me is still a few blocks up.”
“I know,” I smiled. “I could use the walk.”
He nodded, pulling over. “Call me when you’re ready. I’ll keep Mom distracted as long as I can.”
“I will.” I paused, then added softly, “And Holden? Thank you. For seeing me when no one else did.” He looked startled, his mouth opening like he might say something, then closing again. In the end, he just nodded.
I shut the door, and his car pulled away. The air felt fresh as I walked through the quiet, manicured neighborhood, the sun warm against my skin. With every step, my nerves eased, replaced by anticipation. I imagined Austin’s surprise when I rang his doorbell. The smile I hoped would spread across his face.
Then I turned onto his street.
And everything stopped.
Four police cars lined the curb in front of Austin’s house, red and blue lights flashing violently against the calm morning. My heart dropped into my stomach. I didn’t see Austin at first. Then I did.He stood between two officers, his hands cuffed behind his back. His head was bowed slightly, his jaw clenched, his shoulders rigid as they guided him toward a cruiser. He never looked up. He never saw me. I stood frozen as they opened the back door and lowered him inside. Click. The door shut. The officers lingered only a moment before returning to their vehicles. One by one, the cars pulled away.
That was when I realized I wasn’t alone. Seren stood on the sidewalk, pacing, her hands tangled in her hair. Zane was beside her, rigid and silent. I started moving again, my legs feeling detached from my body.
“What the fuck?” Seren was saying, her voice loud and shaking. “What the fuck was that? Zane, there’s no reason, he hasn’t sold weed in months. What the fuck is this?”
She spun on him, then stopped. Her face twisted as she took in his expression. “You… why aren’t you surprised?” she demanded. “What do you know?”
“Seren—” Zane began.
But then she saw me. “Blair?” Her voice cracked. “What—why are you here?”
“Seren,” I gasped, panic clawing up my throat. “What’s going on?” My mind raced, dragging up everything Austin had ever confessed to me. The drugs. The fear. The things he was terrified would come to light. But that wasn’t what made me feel sick.And that’s not the only person I’ve killed.The words echoed in my head, heavy and impossible. I spoke before I could stop myself. “Is this about Jax?” I blurted. “That wasn’t his fault. He didn’t know Jax was going to die, right? He can’t get arrested for that. Is it— is it a crime to not report a car accident?”
I turned back to them, desperate for confirmation. But the looks on Seren and Zane’s faces stopped me cold. They didn’t understand. For a fraction of a second, Seren just stared at me. Then something shattered across her expression—pain.
“Blair,” she whispered. “What the fuck are you talking about?”
“What?” My voice sounded stunned even to my own ears. I thought it was loud, sharp, but the way Seren and Zane stared at me made me realize it probably wasn’t.
It felt muffled. Distant. Like it was trying to fight its way through water before it ever reached them. That was exactly how my mind felt. Muffled. Submerged. Heavy. For a fleeting second, I genuinely wondered if this was real. If I had actually just walked up to Austin’s house and watched him get arrested, or if I was still back at the program, asleep in that narrow, uncomfortable bed, my brain replaying some distorted nightmare.
“Blair?” Seren’s voice cut through the haze, urgent now. She was looking at me the same way I felt—like she wasn’t sure if I was standing there at all.
“I’m talking about what happened with Jax,” I said, my eyebrows knitting together as I looked between them. My tone sharpened despite myself. Did they really need me to explain this? Was there something else about Jax that I didn’t know? Or did they think Austin wouldn’t have trusted me with something like that?
“With the car accident,” I added, shaking my head slightly, as if they were playing some elaborate joke. As if they were pretending not to understand.
Zane frowned. “What does Jax’s car accident have to do with Austin being arrested?” The question landed wrong.
I stared at him, then at Seren, irritation bubbling up in me—not because I thought they were stupid, but because they didn’t seem to grasp the urgency. They were acting like this was small. Like it was obvious. And to me, it was obvious. I wasn’t worried about weed. I wasn’t worried about charges that could be paid off or argued down. I was worried about the one thing you don’t come back from. Murder. My stomach twisted hard at the thought, bile creeping up my throat. No. It couldn’t be that. It wasn’t that. Austin didn’t murder Jax. I knew that. I had always known that. Even when he said the words, even when they haunted me, I understood the truth beneath them. It was never murder. But the law didn’t care about intentions. It cared about facts. About omissions. About what wasn’t reported. And suddenly, the question that terrified me wasn’t what Austin had done. It was whether the law would agree with me.
“Look, I don’t—” I stopped, dragging a hand through the air between us like my gestures might somehow explain what my words couldn’t. “You realize how bad this could be, right?” My hands kept moving, restless, useless. “I don’t exactly know the laws,” I said quickly. “It’s complicated, I know that much. But there are all kinds of laws about this kind of thing, aren’t there? Like… criminal negligence or something. Manslaughter. I mean—”
