Page 53 of Make Them Cry
And across the bottom?
“Cathedral Welcomes You.”
Our new splash screen.
A scream builds in my chest, but I don’t let it out.
Instead, I sit. Slowly. Like if I move too fast, I’ll shatter.
“It was only up for twelve minutes,” Dan says. “Before we pulled the servers offline.”
“Too late,” mutters one of the engineers. “It hit Reddit. Already has its own thread.”
Tasha’s hand finds my shoulder.
“River, I?—”
I stand. “I need to go.” I back away slowly. This is mortifying.
“River—”
“Ineed to leave.”
I don’t wait for approval. I grab my bag, eyes hot and throat tight, and I’m halfway down the elevator when someone calls my name.
“River—wait!”
Gage.
I don’t stop until I’m outside.
Then his hand is on my arm, gently pulling me to a halt, and his voice is low and frantic. “I just saw it. I’m so sorry. Are you okay?”
No.
No, I’m not.
But I look up at him, and something in his eyes—somethingunflinchingly steady—makes my chest squeeze.
“I can’t go home,” I whisper. I need to text Mask. I’m sure he’s already seen it, but for some reason, the way Gage looks at me makes me feel like there’s nowhere else I’d rather be.
Gage nods like he already expected that. “Come on.”
He doesn’t saywhere we’re going. He just drives, hand firm on the wheel, gaze flicking to me every few minutes as if he’s checking for signs of fracture.
I stay silent for the first twenty.
Then: “Everyone saw it, Gage.”
“I know.”
“My mother’s friends are on Reddit.”
“I know.”
“It wasfake,but it doesn’t matter, because now every asshole who saw that splash screen thinks they know what I look like without clothes.”
His knuckles whiten on the steering wheel.
