"That was for thinking you could just quit," Theo says. Then a fist flies to my stomach. I fold around it, the air gone, trying to find the breath that isn't there. "And this—" Another punch. "Is for thinking you run the show."
He leans in close. "You're not the king here, Cody. I am."
The uppercut snaps my head back.
I harden. The rage goes somewhere solid, and I think: remember this. Remember exactly this.
"What the fuck do you want, Theo?"
He takes his time. He lets the silence do some of the work because Theo has always understood that silence is a tool.
"I want you to know that you fucked with the wrong man," he says. "My sister is the most important person in my life, and you made her think you were in love with her. That's one problem. And then filming her—" He pauses. "That's a whole different conversation."
I anticipate a punch.
"So here's what you're going to do. You're going to choose. I take this hammer, and I solve the problem permanently. Or—" He lets it breathe. "I release everything I have of Adela Kalkaska. Every clip. And when the audience wants something from her, I will make it happen."
"No—"
Everything goes black.
Now, Theo
The waiting room.
Beige walls. Fluorescent light.
I stare at it, and I think about everything that had to happen, in sequence, for Adela to end up on that road tonight with no shoes and no phone and Nessa behind the wheel.
Every move. Every counter-move.
Every decision I made, I told myself I was making for a reason.
I stare at the floor, and I wait.
I won't hang myself today because she isn't dead yet.
Chapter 60: Adela
ThefirstthingIhear is my mother crying.
I try to open my mouth, and what comes out isn't a word. It's barely a sound. But she hears it, and her hand finds mine before I've fully understood what’s going on.
"I'm here." Her grip tightens. "Right here."
I breathe.
Pain arrives sharply. My leg first. Then my back. My hands. My throat feels like sand. My ribs burn when I breathe. Everything feels like I’ve been hit by a bus.
I turn my head and stop breathing.
I must still be under. That's the only explanation my brain offers because what I'm looking at doesn't exist in the real version of my life. The real version of my life has kept them in separate worlds, separate versions of me, separate everything. The idea that those worlds collapsed while I was unconscious is too large to process all at once, so I just —
Stare.
Cody. Beckett. Theo.
My heart monitor says something loud and embarrassing. A nurse appears. My mother stands and turns on all three of them.
