Page 39 of This for That (The Edge of Retaliation 1)
“I know. I’m sorry.”
I look up, my eyes widening as an idea springs into my mind. “You can find out the truth for me. If you find something, anything, they can relook at the case and I can get out. I don’t have to stay here if you help me.”
He stares at me, confused.
I can’t believe I didn’t think of this earlier. It’s genius.
“Callie, I can’t find anything that hasn’t already been looked into. They investigated. It was pretty black and white, really . . .”
“No, I mean Celia. Something caused her to step in front of me that night. I want you to find what it was. Look into her life, talk to her friends, anyone. Find out what happened to her. If you can prove something happened, something horrible, I might get my case reconsidered. Please, I need you to do this for me. I can’t survive another six years in here.”
“Callie . . .”
“Please, Max. If you believe me at all, then you’ll do this for me. I don’t deserve this, I don’t.”
“Callie . . .”
Tears burst forth and run down my cheeks. “Max, please. I’m dying in here.”
He shakes his head and stands. “There is nothing to find. The police already investigated everything. Maybe instead of denying it all the time, you just need to accept that you were in the wrong, that you weren’t looking, and you hit her. You need to own that.”
My mouth drops open, and my lip trembles, “Max,” I whisper. “You know I didn’t do it. She stepped out in front of me. You have to believe me.”
“Everyone in her life said she was happy, and bubbly. I was there, Callie. I heard it all. Nobody believes that she would do something like that, and you’re asking me to go and throw more pain into those poor people’s lives by asking questions for you. I can’t do that. I want to help you, I do, but you’re not the only one suffering. Mom and I . . .”
“Mom and you are out there able to help me, and you’re not!” I cry, clenching my fists. A guard steps forward, and I know they’ll escort Max out because I’m getting too upset. “You’re my brother. You’re supposed to love me, you’re not even trying.”
“I am trying, Callie!” he yells. “I’m trying to survive!”
The guard grabs his arm and tells him it’s time to leave, and I stand in my chair calling out, “Max, please, I can’t be here anymore. Please!”
He doesn’t turn.
A guard grabs me.
“Max!” I scream. “Please. Please don’t leave me here.”
He disappears and the door closes.
I sob the entire way back to my room.
My own family has abandoned me.
My own brother, someone I thought would never do something like that, has let me go.
How the hell am I going to survive when I have nobody?
I’m all alone.
I can’t take it anymore.
“FIGHT ME THEN,” I SCREAM, using all my strength and shoving Tony in the chest twice.
She stumbles backwards, slipping and falling onto her bottom. Peta spins around, a fist connecting with my face. Guards are running. People are standing around us. I know it’ll end as quickly as it began, but I don’t care. Blood pours down my lip and I spin around, swinging and hitting Peta back, anger bubbling to the surface, anger I can’t handle anymore.
I can’t handle their torment.
I can’t handle any of it.
I just want it to stop. If it means I end up getting beaten to death, so be it.
These girls are going to torment me forever, so I’m going to fight back. Even if I lose.
“You want to fight me, then fucking fight me,” I scream as Tony gets up and Peta swings again, hitting my cheek bone and sending me spinning out of control until I land on the ground with a thud.
Guards grab them, pulling them back, and someone hauls me up. It’s Officer Corel—I can tell because he never handles me roughly, though he has a firm grip on me.
“That’s enough,” he growls into my ear. “You need to stop, Callie. Right now.”
“Take her to confinement for two days!” the head guard orders Officer Corel. “Now.”
We were eating dinner, a big group, all sitting at the stainless-steel tables in the dining room. Tony was taunting me; Peta was thumping me under the table with her boots. I couldn’t take it anymore. So I got up, and I lost it. I lost my mind. I don’t care if I have to sit in a room alone for two days. Hell, I don’t care if I have to stay in there forever. I’m so damned done with this place and everyone in it.
Officer Corel pulls me down the halls, through a few doors, until we reach the two rooms at the back of the center that are used for people causing problems, like me. They’re plain rooms, so I’ve been told by Madeline, and they’re boring as hell. You don’t get to leave them.
