Page 143 of All Your Hate

“Told you she’d be back,” Noah says so casually as he saunters past me.

“You said it wouldn’t be for a long while,” Summer pouts. She’s so comfortable with him. It’s what I imagined them being like together once we were reunited.

Grabbing my hand she drags me toward the couch. “You have to tell me everything!”

I look to Charlie for help, but she’s still keeping quiet.

The only option I have left is Noah. I’m sure he’s been telling her lies, but they can’t have been all that bad if she’s this happy. The last thing I want is to screw this up by scaring her.

Noah perches on the coffee table in front of us and smiles adoringly at Summer. My heart breaks for him and for myself. I know how much he misses his own little sister, and it makes me so painfully happy to see him smiling like that. But he can’t expect any of this to be okay.

“Your big sis has been such a great help. We’ve almost taken down all the bad guys. So I’m going to need her for a little while longer.”

Almost?Everyone I wanted dead is gone.

“No. I’m done,” I say flatly.

“That's not fair!” Summer sighs. “Bones said we could all go to Tokyo once you’d finished your mission. Honestly, I didn’t believe him at first, but then he showed me a photo of you in your spy outfit. You looked so cool!”

She’s been calling him Bones?

I look at him in disbelief. He lies so easily. But I already knew that, didn't I? The games started as soon as I woke up in his bed. I'm sure the lies began then as well.

“I see. Have you been okay staying here?” I direct my question to Charlie and she nods.

I so want to believe that Noah hasn’t touched her like he has me, but I don’t know what to believe anymore.

“You can tell me if you haven’t,” I urge her.

“Honestly, Wynter, we’ve had a nice time here. Summer’s played a lot of video games and I mean a lot.”

“Yep! Bones bought me everything off my wish list.”

I should be pissed at him, but I’m not sure if I’ve ever seen Summer so happy before.

“You’ve also been seeing tutors for all your lessons as well,” he adds.

“Is that true?” I ask Charlie and she nods.

All this new information weighs me down and I sink back into the couch. Summer snuggles up next to me and keeps playing her game, oblivious to the reality of her situation. She’s grown since I last saw her. God, I’ve even missed her birthday.

Times and dates haven’t mattered to me while I’ve been with Noah. He took over my life and blinded me to anything but him.

Even now he’s watching me and I want to let that magnetic pull between us win out. To fall into his arms and live in this delusional happily ever after.

But the sting of betrayal is too deep, festering away inside me.

“I want you guys to tell me everything you’ve been up to, I just need to talk toBonesfirst.”

Without waiting for confirmation from anyone, I head back into the hall. Noah softly closes the door behind us.

The volume of the television gets louder as Charlie turns it up to protect Summer.

“She was never in danger,” I state. “You fed me that lie. Every tear I shed agonizing over if she was even alive, you wiped them all away. You held me through the pain, made me forget with your— Fuck, I’m so stupid.”

“It wasn’t like that. I gave you a reason to keep fighting.”

“To keep killing you mean?” I shout, forgetting myself. Running my fingers through my hair I take a few deep breathsand pace to the other end of the hall. “You turned me into a murderer."

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