“Don’t lie to me, Gray!” she yells, her neck straining with tension. “You can’t fix it. You’re fucking in love with her. I can see it in your eyes no matter how much you try to hide it. How do you expect me to live with someone who made fun of my feelings while my brother is in love with her?”
“I…” I clear my throat. “I won’t be anymore. I promise, Ari. I fucking promise, so come down.”
“Really?” She sniffles. “You’ll really hate her?”
“I will. Anything for you, Ari.”
I’ll cut my heart to pieces and stomp on it if I get to keep Ari. She’s the only thing I have, the only person I can call family.
I did everything to take care of her. If I lose her after Mom, I don’t know what will be left of my life.
She’s so young and deserves another chance at life.
She deserves the world.
“Anything?” she asks hopefully.
I give a sharp nod.
“Then don’t forget this, Gray.” Her face turns stone-cold as the tears and sniffles and sobbing disappear. “Make Reina pay for my death.”
And then she opens her arms wide and jumps backward, her dress flying behind her.
“Nooooo!” I roar as I close my hands, but all I catch is air.
I run to the edge, staring down.
The world pauses then.
Everything fucking disappears as I’m slowly gutted by the sight below.
Ari lies on the ground, her head smashed, blood flowing beside her and down her white dress as her vacant eyes stare at nothing.
A roar rips from me as I drop to my knees. “Noooo.”
As I kneel there, I realize something.
Ari isn’t the only one who died. Today, I died with her.
Present
I’m trembling, my limbs, my fingers, and even my lips.
Silent tears stream down my cheeks as I listen to Asher’s retelling of Arianna’s death.
He’s been standing in front of me the entire time, but he hasn’t once looked at me, as if I’m invisible.
As if I don’t exist.
His entire attention is on the edge where I stood and threatened to throw myself off not long ago. It’s like he can see his sister, as if she’s still there and he can catch her.
Or at least I assume that from the way his hands clench and unclench on either side of him.
His bare chest muscles contract, rippling and never once relaxing. My hands itch to reach out for him, to hold him, to tell him it wasn’t his fault.
But that’ll only backfire.
No wonder he’s hated me all this time. No wonder he planned to kill me. Arianna and her destructive lies have turned him into a killing machine, a hollow existence without a heart or a core.