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“What the fuck is your problem?” I manage. “Is this about your bruised ego? Because I humiliated you in front of everyone in that subway? I’m still waiting for the charges.”

“Why would I press charges?” He stands and takes a few steps back. “You’d get away with a fine and nothing would change.” He buries his hands in his face. “No!”

I flinch. The outburst makes him even more unpredictable.

“You ruined everything!” he snarls, eyes wide with fury. “I thought I’d give Koh the pleasure of believing he was rid of me. He just needed to let off a bit of steam and get his confidence back. And then he would’ve come back to me and seen how great things used to be between us. But then you showed up. The fallen rockstar. Urgh!” Luke lets out a frustrated shout. “You destroyed it all! Even my plans for Koh—you ruined those too!”

I try again to work my hands free. The numbness in my limbs is fading. There might still be a chance.

“You’re fucking insane,” I spit. “You wanted to kill Koh.”

“I loved Koh,” he continues in his deranged monologue. “And he loved me! He just forgot. I reminded him. You made him believe he was worth more than that. What a load of bullshit! Koh is weak! I’m the only one who truly understands him!” His voice rises. “And then I found out he probably killed his stepfather.”

“What makes you think that?”

“I did some digging. The case is closed, but it reeks.”

Luke retrieves a pair of blue surgical gloves from his back pocket—probably from his dental practice.

“What the fuck are you doing?” I ask as he slips them on.

His demonic grin reminds me of the horror movies I watched as a kid. Fuck. I never thought I’d end up at the mercy of a genuinely psychotic dentist.

“I’m doing you a favor.” His voice becomes eerily composed. He reaches into his jacket and holds up a long, slender object. “The world hates you. You can’t possibly go on like this. And now that you’ve officially retired from show business and almost done your time, you can leave this terrible world with a suicide. Ha! You handed me the perfect setup—I couldn’t possibly pass it up.”

“Suicide?” My voice cracks. I swallow hard.

“And the best part? No one will question it. No one will even be surprised. You won’t even need a note! Who could blame you? Ever since you got out, they’ve been dragging the Ben Jenkins story across every channel. It broke you. The pressure became too much. So you checked out.”

I don’t know what’s happening inside me.

My heart is hammering, pumping adrenaline through my veins as if trying to fight off whatever he drugged me with. Panic takes over, flooding every cell in my body. I’ve never felt this helpless. Not even in pretrial detention—because back then all I could think about was Ben. I had killed him. But now my mind is spinning in a thousand directions at once. The only thing I know with absolute certainty is that I’m not finished here yet.

“Someone like you doesn’t deserve to live.” Luke stands in front of me again, opening the long object. My mouth falls open as he pulls out a disposable scalpel. An evil smile spreads across his face. “No. You’re not worthy of life. You’ve already killed someone. I’m protecting Koh from it happening again—and punishing him for daring to leave me.”

“You almost drove Koh to his death!” I snap back.

“I didn’t do anything. It was his own choice. Then you showed up and stopped him. Everything you do is wrong! Can’t you see that? I’m doing you a favor!”

For a strange, terrifying moment, his words strikes through me.

Yes… it is my fault. I killed Ben. If it weren’t for me, he’d still be alive.

My thoughts, already chaotic, spiral deeper into the darkest corners of my mind.

Luke crouches beside me and smiles. “See? It’s better this way, isn’t it?”

“No,” I choke out. I want to fight, but my body is still too weak.

My sluggish movements must tell Luke his time is running out.

“Good thing the drug is still working. Otherwise, this would hurt a lot more.”

With practiced precision, he presses the scalpel to my left wrist and slices down my forearm toward the middle, as if trying to cut the tattoo out of my skin. It’s not the pain that hits me first—it’s pure terror. Blood wells up, spilling over my arm and onto my thigh.

“Stop! Please!”

But he switches sides and does the same to my right arm.