“Dead!” he shouts, eyes wild.
I spin around, ears ringing, vision blurred like I’m under water. My lungs can’t keep up. There’s not enough air. Not enoughanything.
“How?” I choke out, barely able to push the word past the panic rising in my chest. “How did he die?” I move toward him and yank his hands away from his head.
He stares down at his feet, shaking his head once, as if refusing the truth even as it gathers in his throat. “I-I killed him.”
His hands twist together, fingers knotted like they’re trying to wring the truth out of each other. His face is ghostly white. Even his pretty pink lips have lost their color.
I freeze.
Noah lifts his eyes to mine. “Alex?—”
I scream. Again. Louder this time, the sound ripping from my lungs as I clutch my head like it might split open from the pressure.
“Meera was?—”
“Fuck Meera!” My voice explodes, splintered by betrayal.
“You don’t mean that!” he yells back. “She loved you! She loves me too!”
His voice chases me as I bolt down the hallway, moving like something wild and unhinged—like I might outrun the truth if I just move fast enough.
My entire fucking life?—
Everything—
A lie.
“She’s agood person!”he shouts after me.
His words hit me like a bullet in the back.
But I don’t stop.
He’s fucking delusional. A murderer for Christ’s sake! Just like his father!
I burst through the door and slam it shut behind me. The sound echoes like a gunshot, reverberating through my skull until my vision starts to blur.
Noah’s voice still rings in my head, and it sends me into a full-body rage. I pivot in the hallway and slam my fist into the wall beside his door.
Pain rips through my knuckles, but it barely registers.
Something inside me explodes—cells firing like fireworks, nerves igniting into a full-blown inferno.
I can’t breathe.
My chest cinches tight, every inhale catching like my ribs are made of wire. Still, I move—legs trembling, dragging me forward even as my lungs scream for air.
I need to get away.
I need to?—
I need?—
“Oomph…”
The word punches out of me as I slam headfirst into a solid chest. The impact jolts through my skull, sharp and dizzying.
