Page 52 of Into Ruin

So you have no proof besides your word? You disposed of evidence?Right…

And did you ever rebuff Max’s attempts?Not in so many words.

Straight to prison. I’m not made for prison. I think I’m a relatively strong-willed person, but I don’t know if I could handle incarceration.

“I’ll handle it,” Camden reiterates.

This feels a bit like making a deal with the devil. I skirt around the tarp and drop my hair brush into the open bag sitting beside him. Along with my favorite clothes and toiletries, Max somehow thought to pack my makeup, wallet, and the rented camera from my photography class. The corner of my silver laptop, and a bit of the charging cable, is visible under the clothes.

Strange.

“What do you want in return for this?”

His eyes positively burn. “You cannot ruin Royal’s future, Harper. Which means: you disappear.”

“Disappear?”

“I don’t care if you talk to your parents. But you do not go home. You don’t talk to your brother. You stay far, far away from us.”

Us. He’s including himself in that, then?

His first threat… his first promise, as it was, floats back to the forefront of my mind.I can give you mercy, or I’ll drag you into ruin. Your choice.

In the end, I suppose, this sort of ruinison me. I suffered his mercy for weeks.

Can I really pick up and vanish? Start a new life somewhere else? My parents will be confused, but I think it might crush Royal. At first, at least. If Camden came up with some plausible excuse, some horrible lie to tell my brother, it might make my absence easier to swallow.

Now, I’m choosing to ruin myself instead of my brother.

In the end, it’s not Camden’s doing at all. It’s mine.

Andfuck, why does this hurt so bad? I may as well have cracked open my chest and pulled out my lungs.

“I’ll go.”

He nods, accepting my answer. “I know.”

“My parents?—”

“I don’t care what lie you have to tell them,” he interrupts. “If I hear that you’ve spoken to Royal, all this comes back to bite you. I’ll frame it however I want. That Max was our friend and you always had a crush on him. That you were the obsessed one. That Royal warned you to leave him alone…”

“I already said I’d go,” I snip. “No need to twist the knife.”

His lips curl. “You did plenty with my skate. I don’t have to twist anything.”

I hate him.

He points to my phone, sitting plugged into an outlet on the far wall. “I outfitted your phone with some new apps, as well as a train ticket to get you started.”

I unplug my phone and roll up the charger, stuffing it back in the bag. I zip it shut and hoist it over my shoulder.

I check my phone screen, only to see that he’s already called me a car from the rideshare app. It’s three minutes away.

“How?” I ask.

And I hope he knows I’m askinghow the hellhe’s going to handle this. Because he’s only a year older than me, and I don’t have a freaking clue.

“That’s for me to know.” He jerks his chin toward the exit. “And you to hopefully never find out.”

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