Page 24 of Pretty Cruel Love

“Yes.” I swallow as the camera grazes my shoulder. “I feel tons of remorse. If I could go back in time, I would make better choices with my life.”

“You wouldn’t kill them, you mean?”

“I…” I still can’t bring myself to admit to something I didn’t do. “I told the police exactly what happened. My story has never changed.”

“I’m not a lawyer, Miss Pretty.” He pauses. “I’m just here to get inside your mind. But for the record, most of the people on the outside are able to admit when they’ve done something wrong.”

“Or maybe they’re good at ‘masking’ and smart enough to avoid ever being caught.”

That answer earns me an intense gaze, and he scribbles down his longest note of the day.

“Next question,” he says. “What’s the first thing you’d do if you were let out of prison?”

“Go for a swim in the nearest lake.”

“Hmmm. What’s the next thing?”

“Buy an entire case of strawberry cream bars.”

He arches a brow. “You don’t have to wait until you’re released for that.”

“You’ll let me sneak out to the store and buy some?”

“Absolutely not.” He stands to his feet and walks to the kitchen. “Come here.”

I oblige, and he opens the oversized deep freezer, revealing a massive stash of bars that I didn’t even think to look for. I hadn’t even considered opening the freezer of the fridge since I’ve been here.

As I’m reaching to grab a box, he grabs the chain on my cuffs and pulls me forward until our heads are nearly inside the box.

“Stop fucking with me, Sadie.” He lowers his voice to an angry whisper.

“What?” I gasp as he glares into my eyes.

“I admitted you here for a very good reason,” he says. “But if you keep veering off the course and making my job difficult, I’llmake the rest of your stay as fucking hard as you made me on the day I first saw you…”

I swallow, whispering back. “I have no idea what you’re talking about.”

“I don’t have time to explain it.” He tugs on my chain a bit harder, staring into my eyes.

“We have about fifteen seconds before the system realizes there’s no sound happening,” he says. “If I ask you, ‘why should you be let out of prison,’ you need to show some goddamn remorse for the victims while the cameras are rolling.”

“I’mthe victim,” I say, my voice cracking. “They killedme.”

“Sadie…”

“I might not have shed a single tear when they died,” I say, “But if I could bring them back to life, I would plot a way to murder them… just to be able to see their last breaths up close.”

“Interesting.” A soft smile tugs at his lips, and he lets go of the chain. “Very interesting.”

The cabin’s front door suddenly swings open, and a man in a navy-blue ‘WeissTechnician Crew’jumpsuit strolls to a box near the couch.

“Don’t mind me,” he says. “Just fixing a slight microphone issue.”

Dr. Weiss shoots me an “I told you so” look, and I open an ice cream bar.

Shortly after the serviceman leaves, Dr. Weiss leans against my bedroom wall and adds more notes to his clipboard.

While he writes, I grab a new ice cream bar and then make my next move on our chessboard.

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