When a car crash claims the lives of their partners, Ezra and Imani are left reeling as they discover their loved ones died while holding hands. With accusations of an affair and betrayal flying, they're thrown together into grief and anger. Ezra's...
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9
Imani
THERE'S a whole lot of shouting happening, tons of phone calls, and a constant flow of people in and out of my childhood home. Over the last half hour, Penny and my dad have been engaged in a heated argument, not with each other, but with others. If I weren't feeling utterly numb, I might have found it kind of amusing, seeing them in perfect sync for once.
So, apparently, I collapsed right in front of the reporters. They whisked me off to the hospital, though my dad adamantly refused to let me stay there. Now, my pictures are all over the Internet, and every media outlet seems obsessed with Ezra's interview. The response from the public has been death threats and insults directed at both me and him. We're being labeled as wicked, insensitive, and downright awful for what he said about Tyler and Madison. The backlash is so overwhelming that I'm being shielded from most of it. Even though Ezra was the one talking to the reporters, the mere fact of standing beside him means, in the eyes of the online mob, that I'm endorsing what he said, regardless of whether they could see his grip on my wrist.
This is the second most horrific experience I've ever endured. People are turning against me for no reason at all. There's no sympathy for someone who collapsed due to a panic attack. They all claim I deserved it, and now there's a #JusticeForTylerAndMadison hashtag taking over Twitter.
My head throbs with pain, and I clutch it tightly with both hands, my gaze fixed on the floor as those around me frantically search for a solution. Dad's legal team is huddled in the room, while my sister, Syd, is pulling strings to have my name removed from the trending list. With each passing minute, more people create TikToks about the incident, pushing them to trend. My phone is taken away as it's bombarded with hateful texts from strangers, revealing that my phone number has been leaked. It's a living nightmare, and all I wish for is to wake up from it.
The noise around me is overwhelming, and I crave a moment of peace. I still feel a bit dizzy and nauseous, my eyes red from exhaustion as I gaze up at my family. "Can I go now?" I mumble weakly. The air bears down heavily on my shoulders, as if it's crushing my bones. I'm barely managing to hold myself together; the longer I stay here and the more I speak, the heavier the burden on my shoulders becomes, and the stronger the desire to crumble under its weight.
My dad turns to me, his expression stern. "No, Imani, you can't go. You can't return to your apartment, and you can't go back to the hotel or any hotel."
Frustration boils over. "Where am I supposed to go, then? I want to sleep." No one truly comprehends how I'm feeling right now. No one can fathom the depth of this pain. I'm teetering on the edge, and the only thing keeping me from falling is Penny's arm around my shoulders, but I can sense that support dimming. My strength is waning with each passing day, and I fear that sooner or later, I won't be able to find it in Penny or anyone else.
