Page 99 of The Circle

“Well, my seun,” Zander says, “I’m afraid this is now all squarely on your shoulders. You have a decision to make.” He stands and walks to the edge of the stage. “Suffer the consequences of your actions from the past and allow your friends to go on their way. Or suffer the consequences of the present. Which are much more dire.”

I see Alec staring at Zander. Thinking. Weighing the odds. Playing the angles. Triangulating the possibilities.

And I see him coming up with the same thing I can come up with. Nothing.

His shoulders sag. He lowers the rifle, slowly, letting it go limp in his grasp.

Zander forces his unfortunate smile and yet again makes his way back to Alec. He approaches, gently removes the weapon from Alec’s defeated hands, and pats him on the shoulder. “Good man,” he says.

Danny is standing near me now, concern all over his face. Eliza kneels beside me, still holding my hand. She leans in close, so only I can hear her, and says, “You need to go, love. You have to. It ain’t just about the three of you now.” And then she places her hand on my stomach.

I look at her, tears still staining my cheeks, and search her eyes. They’re kind. They’re so incredibly kind. And knowing. And pleading.

She knows.

Because of course she does.

Because she knows.

“I know it’s a sacrifice,” she says. “But that’s life, ain’t it? We don’t always get everything the way we want it. Just go. You’ve got more than most.”

If I weren’t already cried out and worn past the point of exhaustion, I might just start crying again. But I have nothing left to give. I’m beyond emotion. I’m just… numb.

She’s right.

We tried. We gave it a shot. All three of us did. We gave everything we had to try to keep our triangle together, but it was doomed from the start. Maybe Danny and I can just make another triangle. A new one. Him, me, and whatever this thing growing inside me turns out to be. Maybe that’s what the triangle was meant to be all along. Maybe—

I don’t even know if I really hear the shot.

I just see Danny fall. He collapses right beside me, head crashing to the ground next to where Eliza and I are still huddled, staring at me with shock in his eye.

His one eye.

His one remaining eye.