Cole

ation of everything I already felt, a cold, hard stamp

een delivered after she was already gone, leaving me with no one to co

you okay? Yo

roke the silence. He ha

my room, and lock the door. As I tried to stand, a sharp, pulling pain sh

breath. *Don't let her get to you,* I told mys

arm, his voice tight with a sudden, unfamiliar p

tle tired." I didn't have the energy to fight, to show h

ont of me. He was trying, in his own clumsy way, to fix things. "I'm sorry.

he question came out before I could stop it, flat an

tion that deep down, he knew something was wrong, but he had already chosen his si

through the qu

pure terror that came from outsid

Olivia'

m his face. His body reacted before his mind could, a pri

heart hammered against my ribs as I struggled to

ion. Her hair was a mess, her face streaked with tear

ing his arms. "Daisy!" she shrieked, her voic

belief. "What are you talking

obbed, her fists beating weakly against his chest. "I turned m

member I existed. He pushed past Olivia and ran, his long legs eating up

'd ever spoken. It was a brutal, visceral disp

forg

e twisting agony in my heart. The house staff, drawn by the commotion,

f to move. I was worried about the little girl, a child I didn't even know. But

own the sloping lawn toward the

st to

hered dock. And in the center of them, I saw Ethan. He was kneeli

sound no human shoul

od frozen at a distance, the last pers