“You don’t know what happened,” I whispered.
“Then tell me.”
My chest tightened painfully.
“She asked me to.”
The words slipped out before I could stop them.
Ace went still.
Tears burned instantly behind my eyes.
“She was bleeding,” I whispered shakily. “She knew she was dying and she grabbed my hand and begged me not to tell them she’d been drinking.”
The flower shop blurred around me.
“She kept crying,” I choked out. “She said her parents would hate her. She was scared and I just…”
My voice broke completely.
“I promised her.”
Silence filled the room.
Heavy.
Raw.
“I tried to tell my mom later,” I whispered. “I thought if anybody believed me, it would be her.”
The ache in my chest split wider.
“But she looked at me like…” My throat tightened painfully. “Like I disgusted her.”
Ace’s jaw flexed hard.
“They all thought I was lying to save myself.”
My fingers curled into fists at my sides.
“So I stopped talking.”
The confession scraped out of me quietly now.
“I already ruined everything anyway.”
Tears slid down my cheeks unchecked.
“She was dead,” I whispered. “And I was still here.”
Ace took another slow step closer.
“You protected her.”
My head snapped up immediately.
“No.”
