Chapter 88
Chapter 88
It dawns on me at this moment that I probably should’ve eased into it better. Said it in a way that didn’t feel like a punch to the gut.
Sure, I expected anger. Some disbelief. Maybe even that quiet kind of devastation Knox farely lets anyone see. But I didn’t expect the shift to happen so fast, like flipping a light switch. One second he’s lying beside me, breathing calm night air, and the next, he’s fire and thunder,
“You can’t be certain she’s lying, Knox,” I say carefully.
But he’s already on his feet.
“Come on,” he says. “My mother wants to see me, right? Well, she’s going to damn well see me now.”
“Don’t go. At least not tonight. You seem angry.”
“Shouldn’t I be?” He crouches down and grabs my shoulders, lifting me easily to my feet. His hands are steady, but his eyes are pure rage. “You have no idea how much angrier I’ll be if there’s even a sliver of truth in this.”
We just stand there for a moment, still. Our bodies facing each other, breaths shared.
“Don’t go,” I whisper.
“Isn’t this what you wanted?” he says. “A part of you told me this because you want me to forgive Finn. If the person whose death started all this isn’t really dead, then we don’t have to keep fighting. Right? Nothing he does to you will ever turn you against him. I see that now.”
“No, Knox,” I say, reaching for his arm. “I just don’t want you to make things worse. If you go there in this state, I don’t know what you’ll do.”
He steps back. “Then you shouldn’t have told me, Bunny. Because God help my mother and Finn if I get to that house and find out they’re telling the truth.”
He turns and heads for the hatch.
“Knox!” I chase after him. “Wait!”
He doesn’t stop. He moves with the kind of purpose that makes the floorboards feel thinner underfoot.
I follow him back down the tight stairwell, through the narrow confessional door. My phone light bounces off the floor. I glance up at him ahead, surprised he doesn’t need the light. Of course he doesn’t. He knows how to walk through the dark. I’m the one fumbling.
Once we’re out, I follow him closely to the car. The night is thicker now, the wind colder. The second he unlocks the doors, I climb in.
He starts the engine. I buckle in.
“Knox, baby, let’s just talk about this,” I say. “You’re not thinking straight.”
“I’m having the exact thoughts I need to be having.”
“At least tell me what those thoughts are so I can help you process them.” –
His jaw tenses. “One of them is that I don’t think I completely have you to myself yet. And maybe if Finn’s no longer in the picture, everything will be easier.”
I frown. “What does that even mean?”
“You’ll see.”
“Knox, for God’s sake, if you care about me at all, you’ll take us home and leave this rage behind. Please.”
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Chapter 88
“Don’t do that, Sloane.”
“Do what?”
“Manipulate me. All my life, I’ve been controlled by people I love. Don’t be one of them.”.
“I’m not, I swear,” I say quickly. My voice is trembling. My eyes sting. “I just got you. I’m not going to let whatever happens tonight take you away from me. You’re a good person, Knox. Just take us home.”
Hé presses harder on the gas. “I’m not a good person, Sloane. And as much as I care about you, this isn’t about you. It’s about me. So please, stop trying to change my mind.”
I keep my gaze on the road. I should do something. Call Finn. Warn someone. But what would that say about my faith in Knox? And despite everything, some part of me still believes he won’t go too far. He wouldn’t. Not Knox.
But as we drive into Finn’s neighborhood, that faith wavers. He’s still mad, and I’m surprised he knows the address.
He parks, gets out, and heads into the building like a man with a mission.
I follow him up the stairs, my eyes catching on the dust smudged across the back of his shirt–leftover from when we were lying on the rooftop of that old cathedral. That rooftop I dragged him to. A man who’d lie on dirty gravel just because I asked him to… he couldn’t really be capable of hurting his own family, right?,
By the time we hit the fourth floor, he’s already knocking–no, pounding–on Finn’s door like he plans to tear it down.
I hurry to his side and start brushing his back with my hands, more out of instinct than sense. He stiffens at the touch and slowly turns his head to look at
- me.
“You got dust there,” I say quietly, smoothing my hand down his spine.
For a second, he just stares.
Then the door opens.
Victoria stands there in a mauve silk robe tied loosely at her waist, her hair clipped back, eyes rimmed with fatigue.
“Sloane. Knox,” she says, blinking. “That was fast.”
“Why’d you lie to me, Mom?” Knox says. “How could you use her name to lie to me?”
Victoria steps aside. “Please. Come in.”
Knox enters without hesitation. I follow him, shutting the door behind us and staying close to his side.
“Start talking,” he says.
“You should sit down,” she says gently. “Can I get you water? Juice? Lemonade? Even alcohol?”
“Mom, for the love of God and my sanity, can we just get to the part where you tell me why you mentioned Lydia’s name?”
“Keep your voice down,” Victoria says, eyes darting to the hallway. “Finn’s asleep.”
Knox steps further into the apartment. His body is coiled so tightly that I can feel the tightness from across the room. His eyes move. He’s looking for something. And then he spots it. A decorative vase sitting on a low shelf. He moves toward it without a word and grabs it. In one clean motion, he turns and hurls it across the room.
It crashes against the wall.
Victoria gasps, one hand flying to her mouth.
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Chapter 88
24 May & u
“The next time,” he says, “I’m going into Finn’s room and smashing something on his head.”
“Knox…” Victoria raises a hand like she’s reaching for him. “I’m so sorry. But I had to do what’s best for my boys.”
“For your boys or for Finn? Stop pretending like you care about me.”
“I do. You know I do.”
* 57%
“Then answer the question. Why did you feed my girlfriend lies to deliver to me? What did you think would happen? That I’d what? Cry? Run into Finn’s arms? This stunt won’t earn him my mercy.”
“It wasn’t a stunt,” Victoria says. Her voice lowers. Her eyes water. “It was the truth. She’s alive. She’s been alive all these years.”
Knox takes a step back. Shakes his head.
“That’s a lie.”
“Knox-”
“She’s dead. Lydia is dead, and she better stay dead after everything you put me through because of her.”
“Keep your voice down,” Victoria pleads. “Finn doesn’t know. It would break him.”
“Why do you always do this? You use people I love to get to me, Mom. Lydia back then. Sloane now. When do you stop?”
Before I can process what he just said, a voice comes from a different part of the house.
“People you love?”
We all turn. Finn is standing in the hallway. He looks awful. His face is still mottled with bruises, his hand wrapped in a cast. There’s a hollowness in him that makes my chest ache.
“You don’t love Sloane,” Finn says. “You just want to hurt me by keeping her. And she’s too blinded by you to notice.”
“Finn,” Victoria warns.
“Stop using Lydia,” Finn snaps. “Stop making her your excuse every time something happens between us. You’re not a martyr, Knox. You never were.”
Knox takes a step forward. His voice is ice. “How many times do I have to tell you not to say her name?”
“What are you going to do? Kill me?” Finn pulls something from the sling of his cast. It looks like a harmonica at first. Then he snaps it open.
A pocket knife.
My heart lurches.
“Don’t worry, Knox,” he says. “I’ll save you the trouble. I’ll slit my hand open, and then you don’t have to worry about me anymore.”
“Oh,
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