He didn’t do anything.
It was you.
I will never know one moment of peace as long as you’re in my life.
Don’t you see? You’re my curse…
And I can never escape you…
Of course, Idon’t tell him that. I’ve just managed to remove my wrist from his hand when I hear Chance’s voice.
“Dia!”
I flick my head to see him pushing his way through the crowd to get to me. He stops a few steps away. “What the hell happened back there?”
Finn stares bullets at Chance as soon as he comes into view, his jaw twitching with fury.
“I just… I need to go home, okay?” I croak, turning to leave, but Chance grips my wrist, jerking me back.
“Dia, for fuck’s sake, you can’t just leave like this. Talk to me!” Chance snaps, squeezing my wrist, and even though I’m ninety-nine percent sure he doesn’t realize he’s hurting me, I can’t conceal the wince on my face. It doesn’t help that a migraine is beginning to form in my skull, radiating all the way to the back of my head.
“Take your fucking hand off her unless you want me to cut it off and shove it up your ass.” Finn takes a few threatening steps toward him, and Chance jolts backward, releasing me on cue.
Chance regains his composure shortly after. “Stay out of this, you fucking murderer.”
My brain clings to the term he chose.
Murderer.
And he’s right.
Technically, Finn did kill me.
He killed me by not doing anything that day.
I remember how it felt to gasp for air, fighting for each breath as I sank to the bottom of the lake. I remember seeing Finn’s silhouette above the water, the all-consuming panic flooding my chest when I realized he wasn’t going to save me. The utter hopelessness of realizing I was going to die. I called Finn’s name until my lungs gave out. Then there was nothing but darkness.
My head is pounding.
Shit, I can’t breathe all of a sudden.
Why can’t I breathe?
Finn doesn’t even blink at Chance’s slander, his focus directed at me. He immediately notices my distress. “Dia, what’s wrong?”
“I…”
“Baby, talk to me.” Finn moves closer to me, and I don’t even have the strength to scold him for calling me baby.
What’s happening to me?
“Did you hurt her?” Finn turns to Chance when I don’t give him the explanation he seeks and grips his shirt. “Did you do this to her?”
Chance word-vomits, “What? No, I—”
He holds Chance up by his collar, getting in his face and saying through gritted teeth, “I swear to God, if you tried to force yourself on her, I’ll kill you so fucking slowly you’re going to beg me to end you.”
This is getting out of hand.