I’m driving as fast as I can, chasing the horizon, going far beyond the speed limit as I race down the streets to get there in time.
My phone buzzes continuously on the seat next to me.
It’s one of my guards, but I know he isn’t calling me without reason.
Jill.
I contemplate picking up, but what will happen if I do?
Whatever comes out of his mouth will make me unhinged.
I grumble out loud, grinding my teeth as I shift the gear into the highest possible and hit the gas.
No fucking time to find out.
It’s now or never.
Jill
Ten minutes ago
With tears rolling down my cheeks, I pick up the photo from the floor and stare at it.
My fingers graze across Liam’s face, my lips quivering at the thought of touching him. Of touching the man he’s become.
Three years.
Three years have passed since I last saw his face, and here he is, right in front of me.
All grown up.
Just like me.
Alive.
My heart feels like it hasn’t beaten since I first laid eyes on this picture.
I want to bend over and scream.
Instead, I slam the picture down on the desk and rummage through the drawer. I tear it out of the track and throw all the contents out onto the floor in a rampage. I don’t stop until the entire desk is empty and all the evidence flies around me like the dead leaves tumbling off the trees in autumn. And I am weeping, bending through the knees, crawling through the remnants of my own dead, broken heart.
Plenty of tears roll down onto the papers as I gather the pictures and splay them out onto the floor below me. At least a dozen if not more of Liam walking around in a place I don’t recognize, at sea, catching fish, in the mountains, digging holes, looking awfully scruffy and … at peace.
How?
But more importantly … why?
My brazen, hot tears stain the pictures, and I roar out loud in broiling rage as I get up from the floor and stampede through the penthouse.
All this time. All this fucking time, he was alive.
And Luca knew.
He fucking knew.
And he didn’t tell me.
In my rage, I throw around furniture, but nothing eases the pain in my heart or stops the uncontrollable sobs from tearing through my soul. Until I come across a mirror and stare at myself, lifting the oversized sweater to touch the markings on my skin.
His ownership over me.
Scars of betrayal.
I scratch at the word until I bleed, screaming out loud until I’ve smashed the fucking mirror too.
Then I stuff Liam’s picture in my pocket, pick up the knife I dropped when Luca fucked me, and march to the door. “Let me the fuck out right now!”
Suddenly, the door opens and in steps a burly guard I’ve never seen before. Probably one of Lex’s men here to guard the place after most of Luca’s men got killed in the shoot-out with Nick the other day.
“What the hell is going on in here?” he growls.
“Didn’t Luca ever tell you not to put your nose where it doesn’t belong?” I reply, stepping closer and closer.
“Get back,” he commands, the look on his face vicious. “Stay inside.”
“Get out of my way,” I respond. “Don’t make me hurt you.”
He laughs. “I’d like to see you try.”
When he lunges at me with a gun in his hands, I duck and slide, and I stab him in the thigh.
He cries out in pain and falls to the floor, roaring out loud. I snatch his gun away from him and knock him in the back of the head. He drops down onto the floor, out cold.
I didn’t want to shoot him. It feels wrong, especially because he’s only paid to do this and didn’t do anything bad to me.
Still, I warned him.
I walk into the hallway and go inside the guard room on the left. It’s filled with monitors and equipment to keep an eye on the building, with cameras inside the lobby and outside to make sure no one gets in unnoticed.
But what I’m more interested in are the items on the desk. Car keys and a phone.
I snatch them up and tuck them into my pants, marching out the door again.
On my way to the elevator, I fish the phone from my pocket and dial a landline to my parents’ house. I don’t know if Jasmine still lives there, but it’s worth a shot. I don’t know how much time I have to tell her everything I know before Luca comes back. But if he does, I’ll be prepared.
I clutch the knife in one hand and the phone in the other, waiting for the elevator to finally reach the ground floor. It feels like it takes forever. The phone rings and rings and rings … and rings.
So I jam back down and redial her number, only to get the same amount of beeping.
“C’mon, Jasmine!”
Why isn’t she picking up?
I try again with no luck, and panic is really beginning to settle in my bones now.
Fuck. I can’t waste this much time.
The chime from the elevator as I arrive on the ground floor makes my heart rate shoot up. The doors open. Behind the desk is that same receptionist, and she’s looking at me like she isn’t at all surprised to see me here.
“What are you doing here?” she mutters, almost ready to press that emergency button.
So I hold out the knife and say, “I wouldn’t do that if I were you.”
She holds up her hands, shuddering. “Don’t hurt me.”
“I won’t if you leave. Now,” I reply coldheartedly.
She nods, still shaking as she gets off her stool and runs out the door on her high heels.
I quickly leave the building too while I keep pressing the car key button in the hopes one of them beeps. A few feet away from the door, a red car does, so I hop inside, start the car, and race off.
I don’t pay attention to the speed limit. All I’m focused on is trying to get to Jasmine as fast as possible. Because I don’t know where the fuck Luca is headed, but I do know one thing—he knew Liam was alive. And wherever he’s going can’t be good.
I hit the gas and text while driving even though I know I’m not supposed to.
CALL ME!
JILL.
All caps lock because I have no time for words. I just need her to know it’s urgent and that it’s me calling from some random guy’s phone.
While driving, I keep an eye out on the phone, but no one is calling. Yet. And my nerves are almost killing me.
What do I do? Fuck!
Enraged, I dial the only number I never wished to call.
“Pick up, asshole!” I growl, watching Luca’s name appear on the screen.
No matter how many times it rings, he won’t pick up either, so I chuck the phone at the passenger seat and focus on getting to my parents’ house as fast as possible.
But when I get there, I only just manage to avoid crashing into another car. I jump out and slam the door shut, only to freeze at the sight of a man in a hoodie dragging Jasmine to another car, her hair flowing wildly in the wind as the rain pours down on all of us.
Liam?!
As he shoves her into a car, I shriek, but neither of them hears me. “Jasmine!”
Liam’s already inside by the time I get to them, and when he hits the gas, the car shoots off. Only then does Jasmine finally turn around and look at me. Her eyes light up like fireballs in the night.
I squeal. “Jasmine!”
Where is he taking her?
Did he come back just for her?
Is it even Liam or just someone who reminds me of him?
No time for questions I don’t have answers to anyway. I head back to the car and jump inside to follow their trail. They’re not far up ahead, so maybe I can catch up if I’m quick enough.
Even though I’m horrible at driving, I refuse to give up.
Suddenly, the phone next to me rings. Luca’s face appears on the screen.
I pick up. “You fucking lied to me!”
“Jill, I know you’re in a car. Stop. Go home, now.”
“YOU TOLD ME LIAM WAS DEAD!”
“I can explain—”
I cut him off before he tries.
I can’t listen to his voice without trying to kill people on the road, and I don’t want that on my conscience too now that I’ve finally gotten rid of that one death-stain on my record.
Luca is a motherfucking liar, and this conversation was all the proof I needed.
With tears staining my eyes, I chase the car in front of me. Jasmine looks at me over her shoulder and mouths my name.
“I’m coming for you, Jasmine,” I say even though I know she can’t hear me. Whether it’s Liam or someone else, I will make sure she’s safe.
We’re driving along the same road I drove past all those years ago, and the heavy rain on the window is giving me flashbacks. The car stops abruptly along the road, and I struggle to park without getting lost in dark memories.
Even though it’s pouring outside, I still jump out and head straight for the car in front of me, clutching the knife I took with me firmly in my hands.
But as Jasmine steps out, so does the driver, and I am not prepared.
It wasn’t Liam who was driving. It was Luca.
And we’re at the same cliff where my whole life was destroyed in a single devastating second.
At the very edge of the cliff, a man leans over to peer at the water that I almost drowned in three years ago.
Jasmine approaches the man, her hands clutched together, while Luca stays back.
But when that man finally turns around to face her, I am not prepared.
At all.
My voice is mousy soft as I mutter, “Liam?”
