They're pages from Lily Anna's diary, all the vicious, dirty secrets written in her handwriting and revealing these people for who they truly are. They may be Firstborns, but they're really nothing but monsters. Monsters that killed Lily Anna first, and did their best to destroy me second.
As I began walking out of the school, I allow the cathartic moment to take over. I let the papers fall all over the hallway. Pages for every one of these people Lily Anna knew litter the floor. This is going to break them. These secrets will bring Eden Falls to its knees.
And I have no regrets left.
19
Dexter
It isn't until the day's second class that I find out about the photo.
Pandora, my sexy little toy, sprawled out in the most private moment, for everyone to see.
By then, it's too late.
The hallways are strewn with photocopied pages from Lily Anna's diary, and Pandora is long gone.
I corner Audra in the hallway outside the gym, towering over her as I cage her against the lockers.
"Dex," she manages breathily. "What do you-"
"Where did you get that photo?" I hiss. "I know it was you who did this. Don't even try to fucking deny it."
"You..." She bites her lower lip. "You don't fucking remember?"
"Tell me!" I punch the locker next to her and she cringes away.
"God, Dex! You texted it to me! Don't you remember? It was you, Dex!" With shaky fingers, she scrolls through her phone and shows me the text. And there it is, with my name as the sender. The photo of Pandora I took when I fucked her.
"I didn't send that," I mutter. "Impossible. Im-fucking-possible."
"Well, someone did," Audra rolls her eyes. "And who else could it be? You live alone, Dexter."
Except I don't.
And I suddenly know exactly who did this. The only person who's capable of this shit - the one who wants to punish me, whatever the cost.
She was capable of killing two innocent people in the name of her sick love.
She won't stop now.
Lily Anna will keep hurting me and the people I love until she gets her way.
I jog away, my hands forming fists as I race down the hallway and into my car. I screech out of the parking lot. I don't even give myself a moment to sift through the diary pages that have sent the school into a frenzy, because I'm too busy hunting down the girl who made this whole mess.
But with those pages being revealed... it means the end of our world, at least in some ways. It will show everyone none of these people are as special, as sacred, as fucking innocent as they've led everyone to believe. The diary makes us all seem... human.
I groan out loud.
I will deal with Lily Anna too, when the time is right. She'll pay for sending that text to Audra. She'll pay for everything. But first, I need to find Pandora. I need to find her before it's too late. Before she's left town for good, leaving me behind in the dust.
Racing to the train station, I reach it in a record of twenty minutes. The whole time, I'm stressed as fuck, sweating and cursing out loud. I leave the car running and run off to the platform. I know Pandora left to see her mother. I know she saw that photo circulating and thought the absolutely worst of me. She thought I betrayed her again. Finally, now that I'm coming to terms and accepting my love for her, it's all over.
Again.
There's only one train leaving for North Haven today, and it's leaving in ten minutes.
I reach the platform, scanning the crowd for any sign of her. I rush past people, pushing them aside, looking them up and down. No fucking luck. I run on the train next, pushing past people who curse and yell at me, not giving a shit. I see a brunette from the back, grab her shoulder, startle her. It's not Pandora.
I make it through all the carriages and she's fucking nowhere to be seen.
I have to accept it. She's not on the train.
I manage to get off before the train pulls away, sitting on the platform with my head in my hands, kicking at the ground. She got away. She ran away from me. She left me. I'm alone. Alone again.
What happens next feels like a trance.
Somehow I get out of that train station.
Some-fucking-how, I end up at a house party of one of the rich kids in Eden Falls. Someone I used to compare myself to, my competition - without the status. It's been a long time since then.
I'm greeted with open arms. Invited in. Poured drink after drink. I drink all of them. I get asked too many questions to count. I don't answer any of them.
I drink.
I smoke.
I dance, sweaty bodies grinding against mine. Someone tries to kiss me, and I have to get out, I'm fucking dying from the oppressive heat, the booze, the fucking sensory overloard.
I think about Lily Anna, probably worried out of her mind about what's happened to me.
Let her fucking worry.
After everything she's done to fucking with my life, she fucking deserves it.
I fill my mind with a haze that's as numbing as it is comforting. Because when I'm in this haze, I don't know right from wrong, and nothing can hurt me. So I'll just stay in it until the pain doesn't fucking hurt anymore.
I lose myself in the night and pretend the problems won't be here when I open my eyes, sober again.
At some point, I get sick in the garden of my former rival.
But hours later, I wake up with a start in the backseat of my car with a bottle of tequila clutched in my hand. I groan, feeling a killer hangover coming on. But I'm also stone cold sober, and the thought of Pandora consumes me completely now. I need to find her. I need to get rid of Lily Anna for good.
I get behind the wheel of my car with a clear head.
I drive home with my heart pounding and my mind filled with ideas.
I'll beg Lai to help Lily Anna.
I'll give her to Emilian Oakes, to punish her for what she's done.
I'll fucking push her off that cliff myself.
I shake my head to get the thought out. I can't bear to think about it, but the idea is there now, firmly lodged in my mind, demanding attention.
I could get rid of her.
She's hurt enough people.
I could hurt her.
Nobody would know.
I'd get away with it. It would be the perfect crime. She'd be dead. Gone. No more trouble. Never again.
I grind out curse after curse. I'm getting close to home, and when I pull into the lane leading up to the Manor, I knit my brows together. There are two police cars parked upfront, and a line of yellow tape stretches around the property.
My heart fucking stops when I see it. Dread fills my insides and I taste bile in my mouth.
Lily Anna.
They found Lily Anna.
I know I'm fucked either way. She'll rat me out, blame it all on me. I'll be in jail for a long fucking time - too long. So long Pandora will forget all about me. But I can't bring myself to stay away. I need to know what she's done. If I run now, I'll only make things worse for myself in the long run.
I park in the driveway, surprised that there are no cops outside.
I walk into the Manor with my heart fucking pounding. I hear voices, following them to the floor where Lily Anna's room is.
As I take the stairs, an officer appears above me. We stare at one another. I recognize him as a friend of my father's. A family friend. Someone I used to know, many years ago, when life was simple.