Page 251 of Swallow Your Sorries

So even Bae knows it’s him that did this to me. It’s always him.

“Gant, the blood,” Hale says somewhere to my left.

“Gant.” A new voice.

Older. Cold. foreign.

Tugs. I’m tugged this way and that and then I’m being scraped off of the floor and from Gant’s arms like thethingI feel like.

I’d believed him. That he loved me.

I’d believed Mum too.

I’d believed Jarett, up until I was nine. Not that he’d ever said it. Mum had tried to convince me.

Gant had tried to convince me.

I’d even tried to convince myself, but ultimately no one loved me.

Not even myself, because why am I like this?

Why would I think someone like Gant Auclair would be any different?

He hated me. Blamed me.

How can I even be upset at his betrayal? This isn’t betrayal, it’s a game.

And he won.

Because I let him.

Numbness creeps in along with the darkness.

Footfalls on wood echo in my ear. Then carpet. Then concrete before they’re bounding down steps onto cobblestones. I can feel it too with every jerk that tries to keep me conscious.

The starry sky sprawls over my head, but something else catches my eyes for just long enough to force them to stay open for a second longer.

Lights. Not the red and blue lights of the ambulance, but yellow ones. Two of them. Round and flanking a tall silver ornament.

As Bae rushes past, I finally get a good look at it, because it’s not an eagle or a woman in a billowing dress. It’s an angel, kneeling, with its robes blowing behind it and in its hands is a little circle. The same one that caused the smoothest indent between my ribs.

It’s not a Rolls Royce at all. I don’t know what the hell it is and I don’t care because I’m losing touch with reality. My head’s floating away, up to the clouds covering the stars.

Someone catches up to Bae and I’s side.

“Rin?” I hear myself ask and then she’s over me, a small smile curling her lips.

And for once, I’m happy to see my wicked stepmother.

Gant

I have to get in the ambulance.

I have to.

I can do anything for my little dove.

Can’t I?

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