I shake my head, shoving his hands off me and stumbling backward.
“I… I didn’t kill him.”
Air.
I need air.
“No, but you know who did.”
Fuck.
Fuck.
I need to leave.
“You’ve been covering for that piece of shit for so long you might as well have pulled the trigger yourself.”
I was having a hard time breathing before, but now? I’m suffocating.
“I know we said we’d never talk about it again, but I can’t keep watching you…”
I don’t hear what he says after that.
I spin, ready to get the hell out of there.
That’s when I see her…
My baby.
Standing in the hallway with glassy eyes and her hand pressed to her mouth.
No.
No, no, no.
“Hadley!”
The next few seconds are a blur.
I do everything in my power to soldier through my panic attack, chasing after her from the moment she starts to run.
“Hadley!” I shout, my voice cracking.
I see her turn the corner, just a few steps behind her.
She doesn’t look at me or even acknowledge me calling her name.
She enters a room.
The bathroom.
And then a door is slamming in my face.
I hear her lock herself in the bathroom over the pulse of my own heart.
I pound against the door, sputtering out pleas I’m not even sure make sense.
I beg even though there’s no point.