“I know. I told you Julian was guarding the exits with his friends. But like I said before, you’re not the only one here who’s capable of lying.” I smiled thinly. “The funny thing is, you actually could’ve tried to leave earlier. There was no one at any of the exits. But you believed every word I said. Just like I believed every wordyousaid since I met you. Until a day ago, that is.”
“You fucking bitch,” she muttered.
“How could you, Cherry?” Jeremiah piped up, stepping closer, his voice breaking. “Howcould you?”
Roman stepped closer too, hands clenched into fists at his sides. “I loved Calista, and you knew that,” he said in a low, dangerous voice. “You took her from me. And then you spread all those lies about me to pin it on me.”
Cherry lifted a palm, backing away. “Don’t come any closer, Roman!” she shouted. “If you guys don’t let me leave right now, I’ll tell everyone the truth about the Dionysus Selection. I know what will happen to you then. Calista told me that part too!”
“You won’t tell anyone about that, Cherry,” I said calmly. “I know you won’t.”
She turned back to look at me, lips twisted in a sneer. “Why the hellwouldn’tI? It’s the only card I have left!” she snapped. She looked back at Roman. “Take me down, and you go down with me!”
I took a step closer to her, smiling thinly. “There’s something you don’t seem to have realized yet, Cherry.”
“What?” she spat out.
“You being able to spend the rest of your life in prison is aprivilege. A massive privilege that I've granted you,” I said, voice dripping with icy contempt. “Everyone else wants you dead, and they want it to hurt like hell.”
I paused and reached out to pat her hair, making her flinch.
“Get this through your head, Cherry,” I went on. “From this moment on, you'll be watched. Forever. All forms of communication will be heavily monitored, and you won’t have internet access. Every prisoner who ends up sharing a block with you before and after your trial will get ungodly amounts of money put in their commissaries in return for reporting on you. And if I ever change my mind and decide it’s too much of a hassleto keep you alive after all... well, I'll let the Dionysus men know. And believe me, they'll have a lot of fun killing you.”
“And we won't let it happen fast,” Roman interjected, voice dripping with venom. “Especially not me.”
My humorless smile widened. “He'll want to make you feel every bit of pain he’s felt over losing Calista. So he'll torture you slowly. Keep you alive long enough to feel everything. Then he'll wake you up and do it again,” I said. “Right now, I’m the only thing standing in between that and your safety. So remember that, Cherry. Your life is atmymercy from now on.”
She blinked rapidly, mouth opening and closing like a fish out of water.
“So…” I cocked my head. “Do you still feel like telling anyone what you know about the Dionysus Club? Or are you going to do what I want and keep your mouth shut?”
She swallowed thickly. “I… I won’t say anything,” she said, voice trembling and barely above a whisper.
“That’s what I thought.” I looked over at Jeremiah. “You called the police, right?”
“Dylan did it as soon as she confessed. They’re on their way,” he said. His attention shifted to Julian and Roman. “We already snipped out the part of the recording where Cherry and Violet talked about the Selection stuff. There’ll be a slight pause, but when the police or lawyers ask, we’ll say it was a phone glitch, and that the big secret was that Roman and Calista were discussing marriage. We also cut out all the footage leading up to the confession, where Violet mentioned the Dionysus Club. And… don’t worry. We aren’t going to tell anyone the truth about that, in return for you helping us find Cal’s killer.”
Julian nodded curtly. “Thank you.”
Cherry crumpled to the stage floor, tears silently streaming down her face. This time, I knew they were real.
Julian moved closer to me, squeezing my right hand in his. “I know you didn’t mean any of that stuff about ordering her to be killed,” he murmured against my ear. “But she believed every word. You scared the absolute shit out of her.”
“Yeah. And I didn’t need to torture her,” I whispered back, lifting a brow. “At least… not physically. She’s going to spend the rest of her life in prison, watching the world move forward without her, and that’ll be absolute torture for her. Whenever she’s allowed to watch a movie or TV show, she’ll spend the whole time picturing the life she could’ve had if she just stuck to acting instead of murdering.”
In the distance, sirens wailed, growing louder.
“We should go,” Julian said quietly, glancing toward the auditorium entrance. “Before the police get here. If we get stuck answering their questions all night, someone will eventually notice you’re not at the estate.”
Roman nodded. “I'll stay. Deal with the police, give a statement.” His eyes were still fixed on Cherry's crumpled form, but they briefly flicked over to me. “They’ll want to get a statement from you at some stage, seeing as you’re the one she confessed everything to, but we can figure that out later.”
I hugged Jeremiah, Dylan, and Ginny goodbye, quietly thanking them for their help. Then Julian and I left through the side entrance we'd used to get in.
The adrenaline that had been keeping me upright during the confrontation was starting to crash, and exhaustion had settled into my bones like lead. Julian kept his arm around my waist as we walked to his car, and I leaned into him, grateful for the support.
Our drive back to the estate was silent at first. I stared out the window, watching the dark landscape blur past, my mind replaying Cherry's confession over and over. The jealousy. The rage. The casual way she'd described luring Cal to her death.
My eyes burned, but I refused to cry. Not yet.
