Surviving The New World (Book Six in the Surviving The Walking Dead Series)

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"What about me?"

"Well, word spread quickly when everyone saw you coming to Hilltop in handcuffs."

"My business is my business."

"We're worried about you."

"Well don't!" I snapped. "I am fine and don't need y'all patronizin' me!"

"We're not—"

"Just fuckin' leave, okay? I don't need ya anymore. Ya did your job, now go." Siddiq let out a sigh and exited my cell, locking it behind him before disappearing up the stairs.

"Ya gotta see this was for your own good." I frantically looked around until my eyes landed on a dark figure in the corner of the room.

"My own good?" I scoffed. "So, I was supposed to let the man who molested your fuckin' nephew die peaceful?" Daryl stepped away from the wall and slowly approached my cell.

"No, but ya didn't have to turn 'em into a decoration."

"I personally thought it brought character to the room."

"Enough with the fuckin' jokes, Michaela, this shit's serious!"

"Who's jokin'?" I smirked.

"Don't ya understand that they're gonna have a trial to decide whether ya get to walk free again? If ya get to walk free, it'll be a fuckin' miracle, that or it won't be in our walls. Do ya really wanna give birth in a fuckin' ditch? In this fuckin' cell?"

"That's up to you, Daryl. This was your decision in the first place."

"I had to do it, Michaela, ya took it way too far and, quite frankly, it worried me. You've never done anythin' like that before. I mean, ya cut Paula's face off and tried to keep it and ya castrated Randall, but ya never..." Daryl struggled to find the right words.

"Went Ed Gein?"

"Who?"

"Honestly, Daryl, ya disappoint me."

"Michaela, for once in your life, see what ya did was fuckin' wrong."

"I did nothin' wrong."

"Not even what ya did to Harlow?" The room fell silent.

"So, that's what this is about? Your way of gettin' back at me?"

"What? No, that has nothin' to do with it—"

"Oh, but it does. If not completely, just part of it. What I did bothered ya. Ya knew I had to do it to keep people alive, but on the inside, it was eatin' away at ya."

"Can ya blame me? Ya admitted ya cheated on me and didn't feel bad for it."

"Of course I didn't, I did it to save y'all's lives!"

"But ya didn't have to finish! Ya didn't have to wait until the end! That was on you!"

"So, you're mad that I like chicks, too?"

"Is that what it was? Ya thought about leavin' me for her?"

"Are ya that self-fuckin'-conscious?"

"After Negan, yeah." The room fell silent. "Ya chose Negan over me, slept with Simon, one of Negan's wives, and now Harlow, what the fuck am I supposed to think?" I didn't respond. "Did ya like it? What ya did to Harlow?"

"It was my first time givin'—"

"That's not what I asked."

"I...I guess? I mean, it wasn't bad."