Each day, Calla and her fragile heart are that little bit closer to death... but before she goes she'll prove to the world the boy she loves is no murderer.
🖤🖤🖤
With a life steeped in wealth and privilege, Calla Pierce should be protected from t...
ओह! यह छवि हमारे सामग्री दिशानिर्देशों का पालन नहीं करती है। प्रकाशन जारी रखने के लिए, कृपया इसे हटा दें या कोई भिन्न छवि अपलोड करें।
"What are you doing?"
I freeze. There's a click, and the kitchen is flooded with light. I turn to the doorway where Mari is watching me. Her eyes narrowed by sleep and judgement. She yawns loudly and tugs her dressing gown tighter around her.
"I'm going out. Just to see a friend and I'll only be..."
"It's gone midnight. And you're not going out. You're sneaking out."
I take a step forward, ignoring my little sister's glare. I don't have time for this. I'd been following Raj online, waiting for the next party at the Heights. Owen still wasn't responding to my messages, and the police had no leads. And neither did I. The only person who might know something is as missing as Owen. But he'd been going to parties at the Heights with Damien, and though it was a long shot, maybe he still was.
"Yes, I'm sneaking out. So unless you're intending to wake Mum and Dad, I'm going."
She says nothing for a moment, her lips twitching as she searches for her words.
"I don't want you to get hurt again."
Mari is always practical, painfully so. It's not that she doesn't feel things, more that she'd rather fix a problem than worry about it. Worrying has no practical application, so she seems to reject the emotion entirely.
"I don't know what you're..."
"He broke your heart. Whoever he was. I was with you that night, remember? The night of Alice's show. I've never seen you that way. You clung to me, you didn't let my hand go..." She bites her lip and leans against the doorframe. "Mum and Dad don't see it. How angry you get about your heart. But I do. You're never sad. Never broken. Just... enraged. But that night. I was scared. For the first time, I was really scared."
I don't move. I feel like I've forgotten how to breathe. I'm leaning against the door, trying to keep myself straight. Everything about that night slams into me hard enough to knock me down. The night Alice was the lead in Swan Lake for the first time. The night Owen broke up with me...
"I don't know what you're talking about..."
She raises a hand and hisses.
"Don't bother. Don't lie to me. You're sneaking out, or just outright lying, and I know it involves some boy." I should tell her. I want to. But how do I convince her that Owen is innocent when everything says otherwise? When she already hates him for what he did to me? "Calla, please?"
I push down on the handle, letting the door open a crack and the fierce cold burns against my cheeks.
"You don't need to worry about me." I shoot her a tight smile. "That's the thing about having a heart that's actually broken. It's my superpower. Nobody can break something that's already broken."
Her body deflates, and the disappointment in her eyes kills me. I can ignore it in anyone else, but not from her.
"You've only ever had one superpower. And that's lying, but I want you to understand something... the person you lie to most is yourself."
