Page 93 of A Duet of Darkness and Dreams

“Shut up, Rodriguez,” he says. He never calls me that.

“What’s wrong?” I ask. “Can’t stomach the fact that someone accepted me over you?”

He says nothing but seethes, his arms strained tight on either side of me and his horrible coffee breath on my face. “Is that why you stole my work?” I whisper. “Because you couldn’t get an internship with your own?”

“Don’t fuck with me, Rodriguez.”

“Get away from me—”

“You weren’t supposed to get anything,” he shouts.

My lips part and my heart beats in my throat. “Wh—what?”

His frightened, watery eyes flick over my face and he finally takes a step backward.

“You . . . Did you blackball me?”

He clears his throat and looks away. “Look. I did what I had to do.”

“You prevented me from getting an internship?” I whisper.

He says nothing.

“How could you? You already took so much from me!” I scream.

“I couldn’t have anyone tracing the articles back to you, could I?”

“But my name is on them!”

He shifts uncomfortably, the first time I see him squirm, and there’s a small part of me that ignores the anger to revel in him feeling uneasy. “I removed the original articles from the school archives.”

A horrified laugh bubbles out of me. “Then what? You wrote to every publication I applied to and told them I was plagiarizingyou?”

His eyes stay trained on mine.

“You—” But words elude me. The absolute betrayal. Not only has this asshole stolen my work and sabotaged my chances at an internship, but he went so far as to remove any evidence I could use to help me clear my name.

“How did you even know where I applied?” I ask, trying to make all of the pieces make sense. “Wait, my notebook . . .” I kept a list of all of the outlets I was waiting to hear back from in my notebook. The one he stole from me. No wonder everyone rejected me. And the only reason I was still able to get any internship at all was becauseEarwormreached out tome.

This time, I do rage. Like an animal that’s been captive for years and is finally let out, I hit and scratch and thrash and cry with all the strength I have, and while I get a good few swipes in, I can’t compete with his size and strength and he easily subdues me, pinning my wrists against the wall.

“Calm down,” he shouts. “I still have that picture. Remember what I can do to you.”

“What the hell is going on here?” Randall yells as he pulls Simon away from me.

I collapse in a heap on the floor, unable to speak as Randall sends Simon out the door.

“Isabella,” Randall says. “Did he attack you? Are you okay? What the hell happened?”

But I can’t breathe. No air will enter my lungs, and the small ray of light at the end of my long, lonely tunnel extinguishes into total darkness.

CHAPTER 29

Five Years Ago

DAVE

The cuffs tighten for a moment before they release, the skin pinched and sore from the metal digging in for the last eight hours. I rub at the raw skin and push my hair back.

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