Page 99 of If You Dare

I jump in right after her, the water colliding with my skin like ice. But I don’t care, laughing when I come up for air.

For a few seconds, I can’t see her as chlorinated water, wet hair, and darkness obstruct my vision. I fling water her way, waiting for a few good splashes in return.

Until I finally notice the silence.

Chloe isn’t splashing me back. She’s not laughing.

The night air around us is so quiet, so still, a chill rakes down my spine.

“Chloe?”

Nothing. Nothing but more silence. No movement.

I call out her name again, heart hammering now as I move in the direction of where she fell in. My hands find her hair first, floating on the water’s surface. She’s facedown.

My heart drops to the bottom of the pool.

“Chloe!” The scream rips from my throat. I try pushing her toward the edge, back to safety. Try to flip her so she can breathe again, but she’s so heavy and the panic is making my head spin. “Chloe!”

Beneath the single light illuminating the patio, a figure emerges, rushing toward us. He’s at the pool’s edge in seconds, tall and looming over where I’m struggling to get Chloe out of the water.

Wes pulls her out in a second, water rushing as it flows off her.

I climb up the ladder and watch helplessly as Wes presses two fingers to Chloe’s neck. Then flattens a hand against her chest. “Fuck!” he shouts. “Call 911!”

I scramble for our clothes, finally managing to dig out my phone with shaking hands and dial 911. But once Wes starts performing chest compressions, I lose it. Screaming and screaming, even as the operator answers.

“Shut the fuck up!” Wes’s scream is like nothing I’ve ever heard. Every part of me freezes, including my lungs. Silencing me.

He rips the phone out of my hand, putting it on speaker so the operator can instruct him on how to give Chloe CPR. Even as the sirens approach and the first responders swarm, Wes continues diligently giving her chest compressions, showing no signs of slowing even as he breaks out in a sweat, even as his hands shake.

I keep waiting for her to move. For her to gasp in a breath. To turn and heave up the water flooding her lungs.

But she doesn’t.

She doesn’t.

She doesn’t move. Doesn’t breathe.

She’s not Chloe anymore.

Chapter33

After

Violet

I stupidly thoughtWes had fallen in love with me. That he’d forgiven me, against all odds.

I was wrong.

Of course he hasn’t forgiven me. I’ve known since that day outside the courthouse that Wes would never be able to forgive me for what I did to Chloe. To their family. To him.

Maybe he convinced himself he could, for a little while. Kissed me, fucked me, held me, protected me, opened up to me.

But no matter how hard he tried, forgiveness and trust remained out of reach.

Even with the evidence of my supposed infidelity staring him in the face, he should know I’d never betray him like that. He knows what kind of guy Trey is and what he’s capable of doing to me. Wes shouldn’t believe a sadistic psychopath like Trey over me, but his mind has been warped by what his ex did. He thinks what he witnessed between me and Trey was a repeat of the night he found his ex in bed with another guy, especially because he believes I lied about Trey threatening me with a knife.

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