frozen in

unds s

cover herself, her e

looking dazed

ng home?" Olivia stammer

k. The air was suck

e building, c

to say, his voice barely a w

ay something, but

" he

ark... Mark was suicidal. I was desperate. I was trying t

ears streaming down her face.

This was t

ng sullen. "She's right, Ethan. I was in a

h, bitter sound. "Hel

room, down the stairs, a

his desk, his

e started drafting an e

anger was a burning fire. He had

ave. The front d

n the house w

y, staring at the screen, the

Olivia tried t

study, her eyes

talk. It was a mistake. A t

. "There's nothing to

e pleading. "This didn't mean anything.

rustration. Her hypo

tive lines, the same ones she p

owed, Ethan barely at

ark circles forme

his mind replaying that scene

to be thriving on the dram

him voicemails filled with tearful

he family i

parents, Robert and Susan,

iving room, a tri

d and unfeeling," Eleanor began, he

A difficult one. For fam

is voice flat. "Sleeping wit

ef," his mother, Susan, said, shaking her hea

xtreme situations call for extreme measures.

sense of isolation. Th

for being upset, for

ain in their tw

their blatant favoritism towa

to ge

, far away. New York. San F

etly, a grim determinati

er, Olivia made

again. Ethan was there

ving room, a strang

her eyes finding Mark' s acr

nausea h

y erupted

, hugging Mark tightly. "C

er beamed, congratula

her expression a mixture

id softly, as if that made everyth

e, the elaborate decep

framing this as

They were all in on it

o just accept thi

utterl