Total pages in book: 147
Estimated words: 140742 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 704(@200wpm)___ 563(@250wpm)___ 469(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 140742 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 704(@200wpm)___ 563(@250wpm)___ 469(@300wpm)
“If you hadn’t left maybe—” Tate says, his voice hoarse.
“You’d still be together!” my sister shouts. “And I’d still be second choice! I was always second choice!”
“Joss and I broke up before you died in that fire. If you hadn’t been high all the time, we could have tried,” he says, grinding his teeth as a lone tear trickles down his face.
My sister’s eyes widen, suddenly she looks stricken and confused. I guess she didn’t know that. I only know because ending up on Josslyn’s list of ex-boyfriends isn’t an option and I made her tell me what each of them did wrong. They all made the same idiotic mistake of not putting her first. Tate begs again and I look at John, who's been quiet this entire time.
“John, take Tate outside,” Mallory says finally. “I swear to God, if either of you lets the cops in here, I will shoot Josslyn. I can’t guarantee that I won’t do it anyway.”
My stomach dips. For nearly two years, I blamed myself for not being there for my sister. I spent time and resources trying to find the person responsible for her death, or at the very least, someone who could give me clarity of what happened that night. Never in that time did I think I’d have a second chance to right my wrongs. Never in that time did I think I’d have a gun aimed at her chest and a finger on the trigger, ready to shoot. I don’t know what the fuck is going to happen here tonight, but I know it’ll change everything.
61
FINN
My attention vacillates between Mallory and John as he stands and walks over to Tate. He helps him up and Tate groans and leans on him as they walk. Josslyn doesn’t shift or move her arms as the weight lifts from the couch. She just slumps over against the armrest and lets out what sounds like a relieved breath. I glance back at my sister and the door, where John is shouting and putting a hand up so no one will shoot. He shuts the door behind them and a slew of shouts erupt outside.
“She has a gun!” John shouts. “If you go near the house, she’ll kill them both!”
Screams ring out and the megaphone starts up again, telling ‘whoever is in here’ to come out.
“If I hadn’t ripped her and Tate apart, she would have stayed with him,” Mallory says, obviously still thinking about what he said.
I don’t respond. What’s the point? I can stand here and tell her that sooner or later, I would have looked for Josslyn and taken her from Tate. I can confess that from the moment I spoke to her, we were inevitable. I didn’t believe it back then. I didn’t even believe it when I was keeping track of her movements. It doesn’t matter, though. Josslyn may have been with him back then, but I’ve belonged to her from the moment she called me out on my arrogance.
“Did John help you with all of this?” I ask, finally lowering the gun when she does.
With him gone, it’s just my sister I need to worry about, and everything about her posture tells me she’s tired.
“Yes,” she says.
“Did anyone else know about it?” I ask.
“Mom knew.”
My stomach hollows. I stare at her, waiting for her to start laughing, but I know that expression well. She’s serious. I shake my head anyway. There’s no fucking way. It’s just not possible. She has to be lying. My brain runs a mile a minute, trying to find clues that my mom may have slipped up, but there’s nothing.
Then, I remember her words at the country club. “Your sister’s episode.” Episode, she’d said. Even then the word stood out, but I let it go. I think about the days that followed Mallory’s supposed death—how much my mother cried, how vehemently she placed the blame on me, and then … nothing. By the time I was on the airplane flying to my next game, Mom was “much better” and nearly every trace of Mallory was gone. After being told the Jane Doe at Onyx was a sex worker, no more questions were posed.
“Did Dad know?” I ask, my gaze going to Josslyn, who’s still lying there.
“No,” she says. “But he was easily convinced when Mom told him to put a gag order on everyone. He just went along with it. It’s like no one cared to get—”
“I cared,” I say, swallowing hard to prevent a knot of emotion from clogging my throat. “I wanted justice for you.”
“You waited over a year! My own brother!”
“It was a lot to process!”
“You were trying to pretend it didn’t happen!” Mallory shouts and tears begin streaming down her face. “You didn’t even miss a fucking game!”
I look at Josslyn again and my chest squeezes. Something is wrong with her. Why isn’t she sitting up? Why isn’t she doing anything? I need her to sit up and get ready to run.