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Malek’s breath steadies beside me. He doesn’t contradict me. That’s how I know he understands.

I turn away, jaw locked, refusing to give him anything. Let him stand there, scars like scripture, eyes like judgment, a curse carved into the shape of a man.

Let him haunt the edges of my grief like he always does.

It doesn’t matter.

Nothing matters.

That’s the lie grief gives me.

I just don’t know what it will cost to believe it.

VII

They Left Me With the Aftermath

Voices leak through the walls before I’m fully awake.

At first I don’t move. I stare at the ceiling, counting the cracks, waiting for the sounds to dissolve like a bad dream. They don’t. The words keep slipping through the drywall, sharp enough to cut.

“Cass, you can’t do this right now.”

Malek’s voice is low, furious—controlled in the way that means it isn’t.

“You don’t get to leave her with me.”

I hold my breath without meaning to.

“I can’t be around her,” Cass says. Her voice is thin, brittle, like it might shatter if she pushes it any harder. “Not right now.”

The air in my chest goes heavy. Every inhale feels like dragging rust through my lungs.

Silence hums between them, stretched so tight it hurts to listen. I stare at the ceiling until the cracks blur, until they start looking like little roads leading nowhere. My fingers curl into the sheet, slow at first, then tighter, tighter, until cotton bites into my palm.

Then my mind betrays me.

A laugh. Flour dusted across both our cheeks.

“Lord above,” Scarlett had said, grinning at me, “you might look like me, but you got Cass’s wicked streak hiding in that sweet face.”

The memory caves in my ribs.

Cass doesn’t answer right away.

That scares me more than the yelling.

Because Cass always has an answer. Cass has a bullet, a blade, a curse, a plan. Cass knows how to turn fear into something useful.

But this silence?

This silence sounds like she’s already gone.

“Cass,” Malek snaps. “She’s your sister. She’s all you’ve got left.” A pause—tight, dangerous. “You walk away now, and she won’t survive it.”

“I can’t stand to look at her!”

Cass’s scream detonates through the house. The walls shake. I do too.