Page 44 of Their Arrangement
And maybe I had.
“She was the only good thing in this family,” I said, voice low. “She held us together. She made the rest of us tolerable.”
Cloe’s hand trembled around the folder.
“You think you’re walking in her footsteps,” I continued, stepping closer. “But you’re not. You’re desecrating them.”
“I loved her,” she whispered.
“Not enough to go with her.”
She flinched.
Again.
God, why didn’t she break?
Why didn’t she scream, shove me, cry—do something other than look at me like she understood?
“I was sick,” she said, her voice barely a breath. “She told me she’d cancel. Said she’d wait. But she went anyway. You think I haven’t replayed that night a thousand times in my head?”
“Don’t act like a martyr,” I spat. “You didn’t even stay for the burial. You left.”
“I couldn’t face you.”
“No,” I said, stepping in close—too close. Her back brushed the wall. “Youcouldn’t faceyourself.”
Her breath hitched.
I leaned in, hands at my sides, knuckles flexing to keep from grabbing her. From pressing her to that wall and shaking the truth out of her until the guilt spilled free like blood.
“You wear her scent,” I said. “You still have the earrings shegave you. You came back to this place like you never carved yourself out of it.”
“I didn’t know where else to go,” she whispered. “I thought?—”
“You thought wrong.”
We were inches apart.
I could see the pulse in her neck. Feel the heat from her skin. She was scared. Not of me. Of herself. Of what she wanted me to do. I wanted it too. And that’s why I stepped back. Not far. Just enough to sever the thread between us.
“This place will eat you alive, Cloe,” I said. “You’re not built for it.”
She didn’t answer right away.
Then, softly?—
“Then why am I still here?”
My jaw ticked.
Because we let you in.
Because none of us stopped Barron when he said yes.
Because we’re just as broken as you are.
I didn’t say any of that.
