Page 74 of Little Did You Know

My chair scraped against the linoleum as I dragged it closer to Emmett's bed, the sound harsh in the sudden quiet.

"What happened, Em?" My fingers found the spaces between his, careful to avoid disturbing the pulse monitor. The question hung in the air, joining the steady rhythm of machines. "Who did this to you?"

The shadow on the privacy curtain shifted, the soft scuff of rubber soles against the floor, echoed over the beeping machines. The hair on my neck rose.

"Your fucking boyfriend did this."

The words sliced through the mechanical drone of Emmett's ventilator. I jerked around, my hip catching the metal rail of his bed. A woman I'd never seen stood in the room, her mascara smeared like war paint, her knuckles white around the strap of a familiar leather bag—Emmett's bag.

The monitors kept their steady rhythm, counting the heartbeats between her accusation and the moment my world would shatter for the second time today.

Chapter Thirty-Four

She looked like me. An angry version of me.

"I'm sorry?" My fingers curled around the strap of my bag. The woman's words made no sense—I didn't even have a boyfriend.

"You heard me." She stepped closer, her perfume sharp and cloying. "It's because of you and your rich boyfriend that he's dying."

She meant Nick.

"I'm sorry, who are you?"

"I'm his girlfriend." She lifted her chin.

My gaze scanned over her—knee-length trench coat, opened at the front, skin-tight sequined dress underneath, and stripper heels. She wasn't Emmett's usual type, but I hadn't talked to him in a while.

"Okay." I shifted my weight, creating distance between us. "I think you're confused, though. Nick and I were in New York. We didn't do this."

Red lips curved upward, shark-like. "No, sweetheart." She tilted her head, studying me like a curious predator. Each word that followed landed like a blow. "It's you that's confused."

She stepped closer. Another step. Too close.

"Your rich boyfriend could have stopped this." Her perfume wrapped around me, sweet and suffocating. "He didn't just let it happen. He ordered it. Your precious boyfriend signed Emmett's death sentence."

The floor seemed to tilt beneath me. "What are you?—"

"You didn't know?" A soft laugh, almost pitying. "Of course you didn't. Emmett owed money. The kind of money that gets collected one way or another." She paused, letting the implications sink in. "Nick knew. He knew exactly what would happen if he didn't help."

The monitor beside Emmett's bed beeped steadily, counting out the seconds of silence between us.

"Nick wouldn't..." The denial died in my throat. Nick had money and lots of it. I knew if he could help Emmett, he would. He wouldn't let this happen. She was wrong.

"Ask him." Her laugh sliced through the antiseptic air, making the fluorescent lights seem suddenly harsher. "But why stop there? Ask your bodyguard, too."

"Bodyguard?" The word echoed strangely in my head as I gripped the cold metal railing of Emmett's bed, the plastic monitoring cables brushing against my wrist.

"Nick wouldn't do that." The words felt hollow even as they left my mouth. I wrapped my arms around myself, trying to stop the sudden chill that ran through me.

"You really are clueless, aren't you." She scowled, her lips twisting as though tasting something bitter. "The big guy with your boyfriend."

I planted my feet wider, steadying myself. "Anthony isn't a bodyguard." The words came out sharper than I intended, my voice rising. "He was my parent's driver."

A puzzle piece I hadn't known was missing clicked into place—all those times Anthony had appeared just when things got dangerous. His constant presence at the edge of every frame.

How many lies had I built my life around?

"Ask him." Her fist clenched at her sides. "Your brother's death is on you." She twisted around and disappeared out the door.

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