Page 45 of Where He Ended

“The Faith project,” she whispers.

I smile grimly. “My dedication to Bernard.” It hurtso damn badwhen Joseph used that project against me. I'd been furious that I was tricked, but more than that, I'd felt like I'd betrayed Bernard, too.

“Dominic. If all of that's true . . .”

“It's true,” I say sharply. I pinch the bridge of my nose, but nothing relieves the pressure in my head, in every cell. “You're the first person to know every fucked up aspect of my life. Every mistake. All the selfish ways I pushed others to be as dedicated as me, because it was the only thing I thought that mattered.”

“Why wouldn't you tell everyone it was an accident, like Bernard said?”

“I tried to. When I told the police he'd slipped, they became suspicious. They wanted to nail me for his death, saying it was a potential homicide. But there was no proof. They couldn't charge me.” Thinking of the hours I spent in that tiny jail cell makes me cringe. “My uncle cornered me when I returned to the States. He asked me what happened. I started to say it was an accident, but the accusation in his eyes, the goddamnsadness . . .I couldn't say anything at all. He started calling me a murderer. And I couldn't deny it, because it's the truth. Bernard jumped, but it was my fault he thought it was the only answer.”

Again, I relive Kara's tear-filled phone call.Murderer, murderer, murderer!

Laiken reaches out, grabbing my forearms. The towel slides away, her skin pink and perfect but all I can see is new stars being birthed in her eyes. How can she look at me like that still, with so much tenderness? “Dominic, listen to me. You aren't a murderer.”

“I am. Weren't you listening?”

“I heard every damn word!” she insists, digging her nails in. It hurts, but I don't shrug her off. Her voice is plaintive. “Bernard died, but it wasn't because of you. You cared about him so much! And he cared about you.”

My head swings side to side, I can't stop shaking it. “No, no, no. You're wrong! It's my fault, all of it!”

Her mouth trembles. “All this time, you let people believe you killed him. You suffered for his legacy. Dominic, that's not something a monster would do.”

I stiffen, unable to let myself believe her. I've been told so many times in my life that I'm nothing, that the world would be brighter without me. I was always the worthless boy working so hard to prove his heart had a reason to beat alongside everyone else's. After losing Bernard, taking on the burden of my promise to him, the fearful stares, the scowls, the hatred. I let it all root in my body until it became my armor.

No one had broken through. No one had eventried,except for her.

“You're not a killer,” she says firmly, pulling at me, trying to get me to collapse against her. “I couldn't love a killer. I know it. I always knew it. And I love you with everything I have, Dominic.I love you.”

As I fall forward into her arms, the pressure finally releases from my skull. It fades through my pores, heating my forehead, shoving at my temples. Laiken wraps her hands in my hair, kissing me, and the energy exits like steam from my lips.

Andstillit goes on, slipping from my lungs, my bones, until every muscle is limp from the exhaustion of my own existence taking hold. The only part of me that doesn't go slack is my heart.

It swells.

It burns.

It kicks at my ribs until I become nothing but a single beating rhythm.

“I love you,” I chant against her mouth. Salty, warm tears leave tracks down my cheeks. “I love you so much, Laiken. So damn much. I always have, ever since the start. I've always known deep in my bones that it was you. Always you.”

If my claws are buried in her heart too deeply to remove, then hers are sunk in my soul and beyond, forever a part of me.

---