Page 92 of Somewhere Without You
I could see her unraveling now. She wasn’t holding it together anymore—just holding on.
“Madeline, I’m sorry.I never meant—”
“SHUT UP!”she screamed, the gun jerking up to meet me again.“Shut the fuck up! You’re not sorry. You’re just sorry you got caught.”Her blue eyes narrowed, wild and wet.“You weren’t supposed to come back. You weren’t supposed to stay. And Logan—he wasneversupposed to choose you.”
My voice barely found its way past the knot in my throat. “I didn’t ask him to.”
“No,”she snapped, stepping closer. I could feel the coolness of the barrel against my skin.“But you didn’t tell him no, either.”
“You don’t have to do this,”I said carefully.“We can fix this.”
She let out a sharp laugh.“There is no fixing this. Not anymore.”
A deep roll of thunder rumbled overhead, followed by an engine. Seconds later, the front door crashed open, and Logan burst inside, eyes wide, adrenaline pumping.
When he saw Madeline, he stopped.
His gaze bounced from her to me, then froze on the gun between us.“What the fuck is this?”
Madeline kept the gun trained on me, her breath shallow and uneven.
“Don’t come any closer,”she warned, not glancing his way.
Logan raised his hands slowly, palms out.“Okay. I’m not. Just. . . let’s talk, alright? This doesn’t have to go any further.”
Her lips curled, a bitter smile stretching across her face.“Now you want to talk? After everything?”
“I don’t want anyone getting hurt,”he said, eyes locked on the trembling weapon in her grip.“Put the gun down, Mads. Please.”
“You don’t get to call me that!”she spat.“You lost the right to call me anything the moment you started sneaking around withher.”
I held my breath, afraid to speak, afraid to move. Logan took a slow step forward.
“You’re right,”he said softly.“I screwed things up. But this isn’t the way, Maddie. You think this fixes anything? You think killing anyone makes any of this hurt less?”
“I don’t care about fixing it anymore,”she snapped.“I cared for so long. I bent over backwards trying to be what you needed. And thensheshows back up, and suddenly, I’m not enough.”
Her voice cracked, and for a split second, the rage in her eyes faltered—replaced by something raw and broken.
Logan took another slow step forward.“Mads, listen to yourself. This isn’t you.”
She laughed, but it was hollow.“You don’t know me at all.”
“But I do,”Logan said, pleading.“And I know this isn’t what you really want.”
Madeline turned slightly, her eyes wounded.“I wantedyou,”she said.“I’ve wanted you since we were kids. But you never wanted me back, did you?”
“Mads. . .”
“DID YOU?”she screamed, snapping the gun toward him.“She’s what you really wanted. It was always her.”
Another flash of lightning lit the room. With her attention shifted, I slowly eased off the couch, one eye on the phone still lying on the floor.
Logan exhaled.“I’m sorry. Itriedto love you that way, I really did. But I couldn’t force something that wasn’t there.”
Madeline’s face crumpled as tears poured down her cheeks. Even now, as messed up as it was, part of me still ached for her. Heartbreak that deep doesn’t just wound you—it reshapes you, hollowing out the person you used to be.
I inched sideways, careful to stay behind the couch, my focus split between her and the glint of my phone.
