Page 196 of The Silent Note

Me.

My thirst for justice.

And a giant wall that I couldn’t scale.

I’m farther along now than I ever was before. These files spell out The Grateful Project. As long as I can build an air-tight case with the evidence, I can point to the suspicions around Sloane’s death and prove she didn’t ‘deserve’ to lose her life.

“Chocolate does not count as a balanced meal.”Her sharp blue eyes narrow as I munch.“How much longer do you plan on staying here?”

I push my hands through the files. Where was I before I passed out?

“You’ve been ignoring me.”Sloane stomps her foot in a huff.“You can’t do this forever.”

Ah here. I find a document that looks familiar.

A vein pops out in her forehead.“You are SO lucky I’m not a ghost, or I would have haunted Zane a long time ago and told him to come rescue you.”

My eyes snap to hers.

“Oh, so mentioning Zane is all it takes for you to acknowledge me?”

“Shut up. He doesn’t care about me.” I grit my teeth. The video of Zane and not one, not two, butfourgirls gyrating on him was all over Jinx’s app the last time I checked. He’s clearly moved on and is living his best life.

Not that I noticed.

“Why are you lying? He DOES care about you. And you care so much about him you stopped eating. You think you’re doing all this for me? Pfft. This is slow suicide, Grey. You’re intentionally burying yourself inthis stupid research so you don’t have to think about your husband.”

“He’s not my husband,” I mumble.

“Did you write divorce papers when I wasn’t looking? Because as far as I know, you’re still husband and wife.”

I glare at her and then my shoulders sag. “You’re not even real.”

“I am real.”

“You’ll go away eventually.”

“Is that how you’ll handle this?Not by getting therapy or facing your fears or running back to the guy you love. You’re just… going to WILL your mind back to health?”

Since Sloane is yammering in my ears, I reach for the motel keys. I’m out of water and chocolate. It’s time to pay another trip to the vending machine.

“You are not seriously going to get more junk food, right now. Grey, please! Get it together!”

I slip the motel keys in my pocket and open the door, expecting to see the shabby view of the highway and a pool with a suspicious blood stain at the bottom.

Instead, someone is standing outside, hand poised to knock and the wind blowing shiny black hair against his regal cheekbones.

My eyes bug.

“Finn.” I gasp.

“Oooh!”Sloane tosses her hair and smirks.“Well, hello there.”

My fingers dig into the doorknob.“How did you know where I was?”

He lifts his phone and shows me a tracking app, the very one I installed on Zane’s phone.

“Is this a bad time?” Finn gives me a once-over, his usually icy expression thawing into something like concern.

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