Calix stiffened.“What are you talking about?”
“Diya,” he said.“She’s gone.She’s not anywhere.”
“When was the last time you saw her?”Calix asked.
“This evening.She made tea, said she was going to lie down.I went to check on her thirty minutes ago, before you all got here, and she was gone.”
“She wouldn’t just leave,” I said, turning toward the guys.“We have to find her.”
“We should let her rot,” Arch growled, arms crossed over his chest.
I smacked him upside the head and headed for the door.“You can, but I won’t.”
And if I knew anything about these assholes, they would follow and help me find Diya too.
CHAPTERNINETY-SIX
ASTRID
Wind whippedacross the rocks at the Overlook, tangling my hair into knots.I left the guys in the car and walked toward Diya, who sat at the edge, where the ocean met the land.Nobody would’ve found her here, even if they had looked.It was far too dark, and she was hidden away behind a couple of larger rocks anyway.
When it was low tide, we used to walk all the way down the rocks to the sand, but tonight, it was high, and the water was extremely rough.Too rough.
My stomach twisted into tight knots as Diya’s shoulders trembled.
I wasn’t sure she’d heard our car approach or my footsteps.
“Diya,” I murmured softly.
She didn’t move.
After walking slowly so I wouldn’t scare her, I found myself at the rock that she was sitting on, her shoulders still bucking forward and back, tears pouring down her cheeks.
“I knew you’d be here,” I said to lighten the mood.
“You shouldn’t be here,” she said between sobs.
“Everyone is worried about you.”
“No, they’re not.And I deserve it.”
I wrapped my arm around her shoulders.“You don’t deserve it.”
“Yes, I do.”She stiffened, the tears wavering in her eyes.“I thought about jumping.”
My chest tightened, and I pulled her even closer, hugging her to me as much as I could.Hearing her say those words … I … I couldn’t fathom it.I didn’t believe that she’d really wanted to hurt me.I thought that … that maybe she had been framed in a way that she shouldn’t be.
But Diya wanted to kill herself.
Kill herself.
Bile rose in my throat at my best friend, who was hurting so badly that she wanted to end it, and I swallowed it down.How?How could she feel that way?What was going on with her?
“Your brother has been looking for you,” I said.
She laughed emptily.“Calix hasn’t looked at me the same since that night.”
“You didn’t help them, Diya.”
