Page 95 of Necessary Cruelty

Vin looked at me like he wanted to grind me into dirt. And the longer I stayed silent, the more anger filled his eyes.

His reputation from middle school preceded him. People already whispered about the rich boys from the Bluffs who did whatever they wanted and got away with it.

The VICE Lords.

And he was the worst of them.

Vin’s lip had twisted in a sneer. “If you can’t tell me what I want to know, then maybe you shouldn’t speak at all.”

But even when I opened my mouth to speak, no sound came out.

She did it.

She did it.

She did it.

I couldn’t do it. I couldn’t turn on my own mother even after what she did.

Even after she left me.

I had a few friends from middle school, the ones who hadn’t dropped out before we reached freshman year. But none of them were willing to stand with me, not with Vin Cortland on the other side.

Maybe he meant it to be an idle threat at first, even a joke. But it didn’t matter. Words passed from Vin Cortland’s lips to the ears of pretty much everyone in town.

Eventually, I got so used to the silence that I forgot how to exist with anything else.

The truth might set you free, but guilt is a cage that has been welded into place. There isn’t a key in the world that might unlock it.

I won’t ever be able to escape it.

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