Page 232 of Pretty Little Lies

“Oh, baby, I want to.” Torin leans over my body. The smell of bourbon wafting between us and it’s then that I know he’s drunk off his ass, but still strong as hell. “Your dad’s not here.”

I freeze because it’s as though those words suck all the energy out of me.

He’s forever gone.

I’ll never hear his voice again. We’ll never get to play Connect Four and watch football. He’ll never see Mae and Ellie grow up.

And he’ll see all the stupid shit you do.

Torin’s fingers lace through the locks of my hair and puts some of the weight of his chest on mine. “I’m sorry, baby.”

I shake my head because I don’t want his sympathy. It’s too late for all that. My life is inruinsbecause of him, and he won’t give it back. He refuses to make it better.

“I need Ellie and Mae, Torin. They have to be here.”

“Did he die alone?”

My brows knit in the dark, because I’m unsure if he means my dad or Judah. “Who?” Torin doesn’t answer me, tucking his face into the crook of my neck as my fingernails dig into his bicep. “Get off me.”

“How did you do it, Bay? How did you get both my brother and I to fall for your trap?”

“I didn’t set anyone up,” I carp out. “I wish I never would’ve met either of you.”

He freezes at my words, almost as though he didn’t think I’d ever say it or think it. Yet, he leaves me no choice to feel it. “You mean that?”

No.

Not whole-heartedly.

Ellie and Mae are gone, Bay. He did this.

“You’re crushing me.” That’s a lie, but I want to see if Torin has any bearings on reality or if he’s just living this drunk-filled scene in his head.

He lets off me a bit, looking down at me through the small streams of moonlight piercing through my room. “Do you mean that?”

“Does it even matter?”

“Maybe it should be the other way around,” Torin retorts softly. “That I never met you in the first place.”

“That’syourproblem.”

“Maybe it is.”

There’s heartbreak in his voice, and I can feel it. I’mlivingit. But it’s not too late to fix all this. Torin can somehow get my sisters back and Levi out of jail.

The latter might not be the easiest, but it has to happen.

Or I’m marrying into his family to obtain what I need with the limited amount of time I’m given.

“Listen,” I cajole, holding my tone firm and gentle. “Judah fucked everyone who walked. He didn’t like me, which I knew of before. So, I moved on. Matteo showed interest, the rest is history. It wasn’t until your brother followed me out to the woods that he tried?—”

“Did you lure him there?”

“Whatreasonwould I have to kill your brother?” I retort. “You’re not thinking right. It makes no sense.”

He shakes his head before his free hand slides down between the elastic of my shorts. “Nothing makes sense, Wildfire. Not a goddamn thing.”

“Torin…all this, what you’re doing…I know you’re hurting and I’m sorry. It was out of character for Judah. I don’t understand why he lost his shit, but?—”

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