Page 82 of Play Dirty
Tatiana stiffens.
Still, she doesn’t talk, doesn’t give me the answers I so desperately need. “Tell me about the photo. About where you got it.” Moving away from the table, I step closer to her, eyes narrowing. “You said someone sent it. That you were trying to help, but who?”
“I am.” She says too fast. “I didn’t know —”
“You knew enough to stay quiet.”
Her lips part, then press into a thin and defensive line. A flicker of fear flashes across her eyes. Good. Let it crawl. Let it fucking fester.
“I need to know what happened,” I snap. “All of it, no more pretending.”
Tatiana folds her arms, her gaze dropping. “You want the truth?” Her voice is lower. “Fine, she was investigating Nico. Or at least someone no one wanted us talking about.”
“Who?”
She glances around the main room, then looks back at me like she’s about to drop a bomb. My heart rate spikes while I wait for the other shoe to drop. “Fernanda.”
The name punches the air from my lungs, a clear confirmation of the deception.
“Is that name supposed to mean something?” I pretend not to know.
She breathlessly scoffs. “She’s a missing woman, the one from the scandal all those years ago.” She continues. “That girl who disappeared after the donors swept it under the rug? It’s Nico's sister. That’s the truth June discovered.”
I freeze.
“I found out.” She says softly. “I found out who she was. What it meant. And so did June. We were meeting to talk about it, but she never came. Do you know what that means?”
And I do.
I fucking do.
My entire chest caves in.
The words seem to escape me as I walk out before I can scream. I don’t even hear the rest of what she says. My feet carry me on autopilot into the night, wishing the ground would open from beneath me and swallow me whole.
I look down at my phone, and there’s only one thing left to do. I dial the three numbers. As the pain tears me from the inside out.
“I would like to report a murder.”
I don’tgo back to my dorm.
Not yet.
Instead, I walk towards his.
The townhome lights lining the path are dim, warm glows behind shuttered windows— normal campus life unfolding behind closed doors while mine splits down the middle. My shoes scrape against the wet pavement, and the silence feels heavier than it should. Not even the crickets dare to sing.
My heart lurches, my throat closing as the weight of what I’ve done settles like lead on my chest. Light spills from the inside of his dorm; he’s not alone. Three shadows move behind the curtain. It’s late, almost midnight, but the world doesn’t feel like it’s asleep.
It feels like it’s waiting…
My feet carry me to the edge of the street, just behind the black iron fence separating the dorm lots from one of the main roads. I stay hidden beneath the arch of dead trees, my hands gripping the metal bars like they could keep me from falling apart.
Then I see it.
Two campus police cruisers. Lights low, no sirens — just the red and blue flash of lights. My body tenses, and a wave of nausea crashes over me as I watch them pull up. The doors swing open, and the world slows down on its axis. A rush of blood roars through my skull. As they walk up to his dorm, my vision blurs, and my breath catches in my throat as Nico steps outside.
His white shirt is half untucked, and he looks confused. Zayden and Thiago step out behind him a second later, yelling something. But the only thing I focus on is the crack of the cuffs, the ache in my chest turns into a sharp throb.
