I glance at my sister. “Let him go, Mal.”
“You hate him,” she sneers. “Why do you care whether or not he dies?”
“Youdon’t hate him,” I respond. “I read your journal. You love him. You don’t want him to die.”
“He wants her!” she shouts.
“WELL, HE CAN’T HAVE HER!” I roar.
That seems to take her by surprise.
“Mallory, I can take—” John starts.
“He went back to her after I died!” Mallory shouts, ignoring him.
“You didn’t fucking die,” I say through gritted teeth.
“He thought you were dead,” Josslyn says. “Tate loved you. He grieved for you. We weren’t even together then.”
“I told you I did,” Tate says hoarsely, his eyes opening and shutting heavily as the side of his body crashes against Josslyn’s.
The movement lifts his shirt and I see a large white cloth on his side covered in blood. I’m not sure what kind of injury that is, but from the look of him, I know he won’t make it through the night if he stays here. My sister’s not wrong. I wouldn’t necessarily care if he survives, but Josslyn would, and the last thing I want is for her to try to take the blame for another death.
“Mallory. Let him go,” I say sternly.
“Please, Mal,” Tate rasps.
Mallory’s face falls. She lowers the gun, but keeps her grip firm on it. “You chose her,” she says, turning slightly to Tate with new tears forming in her eyes. “If you hadn’t cheated with Gracie, you’d still be together.”
My jaw clenches.
“You had me drugged and set me up that night with Gracie,” Tate slurs.
My brows shoot up as understanding of what she did to Tate dawns on me. That’s actually … pretty clever.
“If you hadn’t left maybe—” Tate says, his voice hoarse.
“You’d still be together!” my sister shouts. “And I’d still be second choice! I was always second choice!”
“Joss and I broke up before you died in that fire. If you hadn’t been high all the time, we could have tried,” he says, grinding his teeth as a lone tear trickles down his face.
My sister’s eyes widen, suddenly she looks stricken and confused. I guess she didn’t know that. I only know because ending up on Josslyn’s list of ex-boyfriends isn’t an option and I made her tell me what each of them did wrong. They all made the same idiotic mistake of not putting her first. Tate begs again and I look at John, who's been quiet this entire time.
“John, take Tate outside,” Mallory says finally. “I swear to God, if either of you lets the cops in here, I will shoot Josslyn. I can’t guarantee that I won’t do it anyway.”
My stomach dips. For nearly two years, I blamed myself fornot being there for my sister. I spent time and resources trying to find the person responsible for her death, or at the very least, someone who could give me clarity of what happened that night. Never in that time did I think I’d have a second chance to right my wrongs. Never in that time did I think I’d have a gun aimed at her chest and a finger on the trigger, ready to shoot. I don’t know what the fuck is going to happen here tonight, but I know it’ll change everything.
61
FINN
My attention vacillates between Mallory and John as he stands and walks over to Tate. He helps him up and Tate groans and leans on him as they walk. Josslyn doesn’t shift or move her arms as the weight lifts from the couch. She just slumps over against the armrest and lets out what sounds like a relieved breath. I glance back at my sister and the door, where John is shouting and putting a hand up so no one will shoot. He shuts the door behind them and a slew of shouts erupt outside.
“She has a gun!” John shouts. “If you go near the house, she’ll kill them both!”
Screams ring out and the megaphone starts up again, telling ‘whoever is in here’ to come out.
“If I hadn’t ripped her and Tate apart, she would have stayed with him,” Mallory says, obviously still thinking about what he said.
