Page 109 of Irreversible

IsawJasper that night with my own eyes—motionless, clinging to breath, bleeding out all over our tile floors. Red on white. A forever stain on my memory.

I felt him leave me…though not right away.

In the beginning, I still held on to hope. Ambulance sirens had whistled through the dark night like a promise as I was schlepped through the back door of my home, barely clinging to life. Help had been on the way. A fighting chance.

But as days turned into months, and months into years, the hope dwindled.

Faded.

Something snapped.

It was my lifeline…to him.

But here he is.

Alive.

My husband is alive.

I’m hauled back up to my feet by the hair, a ragdoll in Dolph’s grip. My cheeks are soaked with tears, and my eyelids sting like lemon peels. I can’t believe what I’m seeing.

Isaac leans back in the chair, biceps straining, veins protruding in his forearms.

He shakes his head.

I watch the sobering disappointment filter through his body—he knows I can’t say his name now.

The Timekeeper chuckles under his breath, watching my agony play out in vivid color. He’s loving this. Helivesfor this.

“Well, well, well,” he says breezily, a new bounce to his step as he skips between both men, dangling the hourglass in front of each of them. “This is quite the predicament, wouldn’t you say?”

“There was a woman—a captive. Her name was Mary.” My voice shakes, sunk with disbelief. “She… She said he wasdead.”

The devil smiles.

“Shetoldme!” I shriek. “She saw it on the news. Jasper didn’t make it. This doesn’t make any sense.”

“Ah, Mary,” The Timekeeper says, nodding with approval. “She really sold that performance, didn’t she? I almost regret wasting her talent here—she could’ve made a fine actress.”

Realization slams into me.

Mary was a plant.

He put her in that room.

My captor was subduing me. Draining me of fight, forcing me to believe I had nothing left to live for.

And it worked.

I bare my teeth. “I.Hate. You.”

“I’m flattered, truly. Although I’m afraid your opinion of me has little to do with the choice you’re going to make.” Flipping the timepiece upside down, he glances at me with a glimmer in his eyes. “And your time is running out.”

“I’m not choosing.” Sickness swirls in my stomach, my throat. “I can’t.”

“Oh, but you must. I’m not sure I have it in me to kill both men. I do have a heart, you know.” He presses a hand to the dead, rotted organ inside his chest, sneering with wicked joy. “What’s it going to be, Everly? Your beloved husband? Or Isaac, the man who risked his life for you. Who tasted freedom and still returned, unable to leave you behind. Something tells me he wouldn’t do that for justanybody. Our surly prisoner acquired a soft spot for the pretty girl behind the wall.” He kicks Isaac’s tethered leg and laughs, the sound echoing through the room like a howl of wind through a desolate canyon. “For as much as I loathe inconveniences, I love a twisted dose of irony just as much.”

“You’resick,” I hiss through clenched teeth, my insides shriveling. “I can’t choose. Please…I can’t. You’ll kill us all anyway.”

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