Page 126 of Dead Pretty

Kind of like both of our souls.

“Where did you get this?”

“Your wallet.”

“That’s not possible. I never put this—”

“I don’t care!” I yell. “What I care about is how you know Tobias Ripley! Why you’re in a photograph with him and his mother!”

The silence that ensues is heavy. Like a weighted blanket covering my body. But there is no comfort with this. Just the feeling of entrapment and suffocation.

Jack drags a hand through his hair.

He can’t seem to look at me. It’s telling because Jack usually can’t keep his eyes off me.

“I am going to ask one last time. How. Do. You. Know. Tobias. Ripley?”

Finally, those eyes I believed I loved look into mine.

“I know Tobias because he’s my … brother.”

In my life, I have been hit, tied up, and held against my will. Had my skin cut open with a knife.

And none of those compare to the pain that I’m feeling right now.

Tobias is Jack’s brother.

I am gutted.

Like my stomach has been cut wide open with a blunt knife and my insides are spilling out all over the floor.

I wrap my arms around my stomach, trying to hold the hurt in. I’m afraid if I let go, it will start pouring out and never stop.

I always thought it would be Tobias who finally finished me off.

Turns out, it’s the brother who will do me in.

With an invisible blade.

“He’s your brother?” I don’t know how I manage to speak in this moment.

“Yes.”

The room tilts. The floor I’m standing on giving way beneath my feet.

I catch hold of the door to keep myself up.

Jack starts coming over to me.

“Don’t come near me!” I cry, putting a hand up between us.

He halts in his tracks, not coming any closer.

I press the heel of the hand not currently holding me up to my forehead, trying to gather my racing thoughts.

Lies. It was all lies. Every touch. Every word he said.

Everything was a goddamn lie. And I fell for it, like the idiot I am.