Page 190 of Fatality

I tell them everything, about Evren, about how lost I feel. About how my relationship with Liam was never really with me, but with an idea of who he wanted me to be.

Hours pass, maybe just an hour or maybe more. But I spoke the entire time, my voice growing hoarse, cracking with every word as my bruised throat protests, but I never stop.

“Then Evren...” My voice catches.

I hate saying his name.

Charlie and Jules wait without interrupting.

“He..." I swallow against the pain in my throat. "He saved me.”

The words taste wrong, wrong because they're true, wrong because I wish they weren't.

“Then he beat Liam and almost cut his hand off. Told it was for even daring touching me... something like that.”

They are both on their knees, completely pale as death.

None of them are able to speak, to throw out a sarcastic comment, or even cry.

“So, yeah... I’m fucked.” I rub the back of my neck.

“Y-Yeah...” Charlie finally finds her voice. “I-I mean, that’s fucked up... but you... I mean, you told us about him—about Evren—before... before things got this out of control.”

“I know...” I whisper, lowering my head as tears well up in my eyes.

“You know what’s even more fucked up than that Evren?”

Jules finally speaks, her voice steadier than Charlie’s and laced with far more fury.

“It’s Liam—that sweet little Liam...” She gestures mockingly, putting on a sickly-sweet voice.

“That bastard hid his obsession, his jealousy, or whatever the fuck that was, then actually tried to kill you the second you took some space for yourself, tried to fucking talk to him about what was happening to you.”

I slowly lift my head, my eyes wide. I’ve never, never seen Jules like this.

I’ve seen her drunk, high, fresh out of a man’s bed, angry, laughing, crying, but this... this is different.

It’s like she’s consumed by vengeance, and not even because of Evren, even if he deserves it, but because of Liam.

“Yeah... I mean, I did come back wearing another man’s shirt—”

“So what?!” Jules cuts me off sharply. “That gives him a reason to kill you? Evren is insane. He’s unhinged and completely obsessed with you, from everything you’ve told us.”

She pauses.

“But at least he doesn’t hide it. Liam? He was all sweet, letting you go out and giving you space, but the second you actually needed that space, for real, he strangled you. For what? A T-shirt? That’s even more fucked up than Evren.”

“Yeah, because it was something none of us saw. It was buried beneath the surface,” Charlie adds. “He didn’t even stop when he saw you going limp, Riven...”

My eyes widen. I expected them to be angry at Liam, but not like this, not this deeply.

I open my mouth to say something.

“An accident can happen. I mean, someone can be drunk and take things a little too far, and not realize the force they put but he was tipsy. Not drunk. And he didn’t stop, Riven,” Jules says, sitting back down, waving a dismissive hand. “He was clear-headed enough to know exactly what he was doing.”

The silence that follows is heavy, not because of her anger, but because of the weight of the truth.

She’s right.