Chapter Text
Bronwyn tried calling Nate three times, each going to voicemail. "No, no, no! This isn't working, he isn't picking up!" She frantically texted him. 'Fiona is Simon Says. You have to get out of there.' We raced out of Wild Awakenings.
She tried calling him again, and it went to voicemail, again. "No, Nate, you have to get out of there!" She put the phone down. "Why is he not answering!" She yelled.
"Bronwyn!" I tried to calm her down. "She's not gonna hurt him in the middle of a restaurant. It's gonna be fine."
I knew for a fact it would be fine. We had a deal.
I had been contacting Fiona ever since the water park. She told me if I helped her get justice for Jake, she would keep everyone I loved out of prison.
And I had to take it. I couldn't let them sell the rest of their lives to a punishment that they didn't deserve. But Bronwyn didn't know that. Janae didn't know it. Nobody did.
"Janae, is that-."
"-Jake's gun," Janae cut Addy off, opening the box containing the weapon. "What is that doing in your pool house?" Cooper panicked.
"Please don't freak out." Janae told them.
Bronwyn gasped. "Don't freak out? This gun incriminates all of us!" She yelled.
"Okay, I know. I know, I'm sorry. I should have told you at the time, but I didn't know who I could trust. I do now," Janae ran her hands through her hair.
I chewed my lip. "Why'd you keep it?"
"I thought we might need it to protect ourselves, and here we are."
"No," Addy breathed. "No way. We are not doing self-defense again," Addy yelled, walking to the middle of the room, wrapping her arms around herself. Janae followed her. "Addy, she's trying to kill you, okay? You heard Nate, an eye for an eye."
I had heard the same thing from Fiona the first time I contacted her. 'What do you want?' I had asked. 'Justice.' She sent back. 'An eye for an eye. A leg for a leg. If you help me, I'll keep your friends out of jail.' It hadn't taken me long to wear her down enough for her to tell me who she was. I put it together pretty quickly once I had her location. She was always at the restaurant anyway.
"It doesn't matter! I can't fit another skeleton in my closet." Addy sounded close to tears.
I swallowed. "Ok, does she know for a fact it was Addy?" She had never told me if she knew who did it. I didn't even really know who pulled the trigger.
Nate sighed. "Well, she knew it wasn't me. And, she was in the woods."
Addy shook her head. "She sent me the gun. She knew it was me all along. It just more torture making you hand me over."
The room was stagnant for a moment. Addy did it. She killed Jake. "Which means she might kill you, whether we give you up or not," Bronwyn added.
"And who knows if she'd stop there?" Nate said.
Janae sighed. "But using the gun is off the table, got it."
"There has to be another way. Ok, what if we can prove she killed Giselle? Turn her into the cops." Cooper ran his hands through his short hair.
"No," Janae shook her head. "The last time we tried that, we found nothing and TJ ended up in jail."
For your own good, I wanted to scream at them.
"Last time, we were trying to figure out who killed Giselle. Now we know. We just….need proof," Cooper added. "Right, but we don't have much time," Nate said, worry on his face.
"Ok, so we devide and conquer," Bronwyn suggested. "We look into ever corner of Fiona's life. We only have twenty four hours, but there is six of us and one of her."
"Wait, guys." Addy paced the room. "What if there's more than one of her?" I felt my stomach lurch. "How did she know that you knew that she was Simon Says?" She asked Nate.
Ohshitohshitohshit.
"Are you saying someone tipped her off?" Bronwyn's eyebrows raised.
"Maybe," Addy breathed. Her phone rang in that moment, and she fished it out of her pocket. "It's Vanessa," she raised the phone to her ear, walking over to stare out of the window. I heard Vanessa murmuring on the other side. "Well, we know who Simon Says is, but she may not be working alone."
Vanessa said something on the other side. "Yeah, Fiona Jennings. Remember, Simon wrote about her stabbing her English teacher last year? She was at Wild Awakenings with Jake." Addy nodded into the resesiver. "Yeah, just lie low for now. We don't have much time."
The plan was simple. Janae and Addy were going to sneak into Fiona's house during school hours. And Nate, Bronwyn and I were sneaking into the theater department.
"Ok,what exactly are we looking for?" I asked.
"Fiona had to cancel tutoring a couple of times for rehearsal," Nate said, closing the door to the back of the stage softly. "So, I thought there might be a theater equivalent to a locker room."
"You mean a dressing room?" I laughed. I walked farther into the mess of props that cluttered the stage. "Guys, over here!" Bronwyn yelled. She pulled out a bear mask from under a pile of costumes. "This is what she wore on Halloween."
"Well," Nate shoved his hands in his pockets. "It could have her DNA on it, or Jake's."
I sighed. "Yeah, but not Giselle's."
"Right. Shit."
"Yeah, but it means we're on the right track." Bronwyn said, still rifling through a stack of coustumes. Something caught my eye. A poster, with her name on the bottom. "Yeah, almost. Guys, she's stage manager."
Bronwyn grimiced. "Of course she is."
"Which means," I continued. I ran out into the auditorium, and hopped off the stage. I spotted the booth in the back, and climbed in through the window in the front. I unlocked the door for Nate and Bronwyn, and welcomed them in.
"Well, this is all making sense. Her being the stage manager, pulling the strings from behind the scenes. It's all on brand," Bronwyn sighed.
Nate gestured to the monitor in the corner. "You think she could watch us from here? Hack into the school's cameras?"
I peered around as they talked, a black duffle in the very back of the booth catching my eye. "Oh my god..guys." I dumped out the contents of the bag. "Look at this." It was an iPad, and the mask from Cooper's locker.
Bronwyn picked up the tablet. "Ok, if this is linked to her phone, we could have her location history or texts with Giselle. It could place her at the water park the night Giselle died. Uh…birthday, what's her birthday?"
Nate shrugged. "I don't know."
"Ok, we'll she's definitely a Gemini," I joked.
"What the fuck does that mean?"
"June! Bronwyn, it means June."
Nate sighed, "You really think you can guess?" Bronwyn shrugged. "It's worth a try, right?" She typed in the password, and it flashed wrong.
She tried another June date, and it logged us out. Shitshitshit. "What's happening?" She handed me the tablet. "Nononono, she's wiping it, which means that there is definitely something important on there."
This was not going according to my plan. I didn't even know if there was a plan anymore, but at least I didn't have to hide the fact that I knew it was Fiona anymore.
"Ok…can you get it back," Bronwyn hissed. I shook my head, my stomach doing summersaults.
"Guys, this probably also means she knows we have her iPad, ok? So..we need to go," Nate grabbed Bronwyn's hand.
"He's right, just…leave it." She told me. I set it down on the counter, and went to follow them out but something stopped me. A hard drive, sitting on the floor where I dumped the bag out.
I grabbed it quickly and followed Nate and Bronwyn. We were running back to class when I nearly slammed into Cooper.
"Where is she?" He asked.
Bronwyn tapped her fingers on her thigh. "I don't know, and I don't wanna find out. Let's just go."
She pressed her hand into my back, and my phone buzzed. I pulled it out,and I saw everyone else doing the same. It was Janae. 'Emergency meeting, my place. ASAP!'
'This morning, Maritime search and rescue teams recovered a body, which has just been positively identified as Jake Riordan. The Bayview senior has been missing since Halloween. Autopsy results are still pending, but police believe the cause of death was a gunshot to the chest. More details are to come.'
Tom Preston was playing on Janae's laptop, and we were screwed.
"Ok, not to state the obvious, but…fuck," Cooper said. Janae slammed her laptop closed, unwrapping her arm from my shoulder and crossing them in front of her chest.
"If they have the body, and Fiona has the video, it's over," Bronwyn said miserably.
"You could always hand me over," Addy suggested. "So she can kill you and turn us in instead? Yeah, no thanks," Janae said.
Nate sighed. "Guys, we still have time."
"To do what?" Cooper asked. "There's too much evidence that we killed Jake, and none that she killed Giselle. She won."
I shifted uncomfortably. This was turning into a massive shit show.
"Unless," Bronwyn started "…we can't prove that she killed Giselle, but what if we can prove..she killed Jake?"
She walked over the murder board, and sat down in front of it. "Ok, why would anyone think that Fiona Jennings killed Jake Riordan?" Cooper posed the question.
"Well," Janae folded her hands in front of herself. "Most of you have been suspected of murder enough times to be familiar with this little love triangle." She pointed to the board behind her with a sharpie. "All we have to do is prove that Fiona had the means, motive and opportunity to kill Jake. So, where do we begin Bronwyn?" She handed the sharpie over to Bronwyn. "With the motive. It should be easy to prove that Jake and Fiona have been working together since last summer."
"She had the postcard from him in her bedroom," Addy added. "Plus, the necklace from Wild Awakenings."
Janae nodded. "We need more. We have to prove that she helped Jake hack into 'About That' after Simon died, and that she knew he killed Simon and helped him frame us."
"And that she killed Jake because he was about to be caught. She knew that he was gonna drag her down with him." Nate said.
I paused for a moment. "Would it help to upload Simon's hard drive onto her laptop?" I asked.
Bronwyn swallowed. "Yeah, if the hard drive wasn't the one thing that actually made it to the bottom of the ocean."
I smiled knowingly at her, and she gasped. "You made another backup, didn't you?" I nodded.
"Well, that's great, except we couldn't find her laptop." Cooper added.
Nate tapped his finger on the table in front of us. "Victors has public Wi-Fi. Doesn't that make it easy to hack a computer on that network?"
"Yeah," I told him. That was the biggest mistake someone could make if they were trying to do something in secret.
"Ok, so, what if we make it look like Fiona was operating from her dad's computer in his office? I mean, the yacht picks up their signal, which I now feel was less guilty about stealing," He crossed his arms with a grin.
"That could actually work," I said, chewing a nail. Janae raised an eyebrow at me. "I'll go with you." I nodded back at her.
Wait…shit..that wouldn't work.
"All right, so that takes care of motive." Bronwyn smiled, looking a little more relaxed than she did just a few minutes ago. "What about opportunity?"
"Well, she was at the Halloween party in that stupid bear costume." Nate said. "But…if she had killed him while wearing the costume, then Jake's DNA would be all over it," Bronwyn added.
Addy inhaled sharply. "So, we can plant his DNA." Janae grimaced. "I really want this to work, I just don't wanna find out you have a little vial of Jake blood somewhere." I grinned at her expression.
Cooper laughed. "I've gotta admit, blood is better than where my mind went." Addy gasped. "Ok, so both of you are disgusting! I was actually talking about his hair, you weirdos. His mom probably hasn't thrown out any of his stuff, I mean, she thought he was alive until two minutes ago. Cooper, do you think you could talk your way in there and get his hairbrush?"
"I'll go, but I could use backup. After the watch fiasco, Cole's not gonna take his eyes off me."
Nate shrugged. "If you distract Cole, I can sneak in. But what happens if we get caught by Fiona? Again?"
"Addy and I will follow her." Bronwyn said. "We can take my car, and I'll just text you if there's any issues."
Wait…shit.
I needed an excuse or this plan was going to go to shit.
"Addy can't drive," I turned to Bronwyn. She shrugged, "So?" "So, if something happens to Bronwyn, we need someone who can take the wheel."
Bronwyn sighed. "Maeve, come on. I'll be fine."
Janae nodded. "It's ok, Addy can go with Maeve, and I'll go with Bronwyn." She shot me a sad look. "Thank you," I mouthed back to her.
Fuck, I hated this.
"Ok, so we keep eyes on Fiona and we find an opening to plant the final piece." Bronwyn said. "Where's the gun?"
Janae grabbed it out of the box with a towel. "If the police find this is Fiona's car, it should be enough to put her away for good."
I shook my head. "It's not gonna work without Fiona's fingerprints on the gun. It's gonna look like we framed her."
Addy turned toward me, "Unless, we're not the ones to tip the police off. We could have Vanessa explain our theory to Wheeler. She'll connect the dots between Fiona and Jake at Wild Awakenings, so that when the police find the gun and all the other evidence we planted, they won't know to bring it back to us."
"That's perfect Addy," Bronwyn smiled.
Janae nodded along."And when the cops realize that Fiona had the means, the gun, the motive, her collar with Jake, and the opportunity, her presence at the party the night he dies, they'll have no choice but to take her seriously as a suspect."
All of this sounded too good to be true. "Ok, I feel like we're forgetting one tiny detail." I paused for dramatic effect. "Fiona has a video of you guys in the woods."
This plan would never work if the police got ahold of the video. They would all be put in prison anyway, and Addy would, probably, be dead.
Bronwyn sighed. "Ok…so, if the cops see the video, we could say that we found his body after she killed him, and that she lured us to the woods to take the video. We knew it would look like we killed him, so we didn't wanna come forward." I crossed my arms. "Look, I know it's not perfect, but it's the best shot we got. And at least if we go down, Fiona goes down with us. She's a killer, and this is the only way we can stop her. So if there aren't any other objections.." She finished.
"I'm guessing I don't get a vote," I questioned. She shook her head, pursing her lips.
"Look, Fiona gave us until midnight to hand over Addy, so we only have until then to put everything in place." Nate added.
"And that's not accounting for whatever Fiona's planning. Plus, we still don't know if she's working alone."
Addy and I were on the boat when the test came through. 'She's at Victor's.' Bronwyn sent. Addy read it aloud to me.
She was pacing the bottom of the boat, her heels clicking with every step, and it was really getting me on edge. "We have to hurry." She said, looking over my shoulder.
"I'm going as fast as I can."
"Ok, Maeve, is it working?"
"I think so," I snapped, the stress in me building up to a bursting point. Addy didn't deserve this, none of them did.
But I had to try.
There was nothing left to do but wait. I watched the dial on my laptop spin, the numbers slowly creeping up.
"Maeve, I really hate to do this, but how much longer?" Addy yelled, sending a worried glance toward the door.
"I just need a little more time, Addy." I checked my watch. Why was this taking so long? I tapped my fingers on the table, panic really starting to set in. The computer chimed, and the screen flashed 'one hundred percent complete.'
"All right, great." I closed my laptop, shoving in my bag. "Let's go." Addy grabbed my arm as the boat creaked into motion.
I stared out the window, watching us move out of the marina. "Maeve? Why are we moving?" Addy whispered. She started to run for the door.
Shit shit shit.
"Wait, wait, wait, wait, wait!" I yelled, grabbing her jacket sleeve. "What are you doing?"
"We have to get up there. It's Fiona-"
"-What if she's not alone? We need a plan, you can't just run up there."
She turned back to the door. "Oh, fuck." I pulled her behind one of the counters in the basement, holding my bag to my chest. The engine stopped abruptly. I closed my eyes, hearing the sound of footsteps above us.
The latch to the basement opened, and Addy squeezed my hand as hard as she could. I shook it away. "Maeve, what's the plan?" She whispered. I swallowed, reaching into my bag and pulling out the gun I had taken from the pool house.
A murder weapon.
I felt sick to my stomach. I had taken it from Bronwyn's bag while they were talking, and had put it on my own. It was the only way to make this work.
The only way.
Addy's eyes went wide. "Why do you have that?" I pressed a finger to my lips. Footsteps echoed down the stairs. I exhaled sharply, springing up and pointing the gun at Fiona. Addy tried to hold me back but I was too quick.
"It's ok Addy," My voice shook. "You can come out."
I could hear her peak her head around the cabinet, my hands shaking as I held the gun to Fiona's chest.
I couldn't do it. I couldn't do it. I couldn't-
I spun around, pointing the gun at Addy. She inhaled sharply. I tried to keep my hands from shaking. This had to work. I had to keep myself calm. "It's over," I said coolly.
Addy swallowed. "Maeve.." she whispered. Fiona chuckled. "She's on my team now. You're so fucked." Addy bit her lip, and I could see the betrayal in her eyes. I gripped the gun tiger to keep my hands from shaking.
Fiona pushed past me, yanking Addy up from the ground. She pulled a chair from the corner, its legs squeaking across the linoleum.
"Maeve, why are you doing this?" Addy cried softly, her arms being bound behind her back. Her legs were already tied together, and onto the chair.
"For fucks sake Addy, stoping making this harder than it has to be." My lip trembled, and I bit it to keep my voice level.
"Tell her," Fiona smirked. "Tell her the truth."
That she was a lying cheating bitch? That she had threatened our deal? That I had no intention of helping her? But Addy couldn't know that, or it would ruin my cover.
"I had to save my sister," I half lied.
"Bronwyn wasn't even there when the gun went off. That was all you," Fiona said, pulling Addy's binds tighter. She yelped. "How long have you been working with this psycho?" Addy spat through gritted teeth. Fiona shoved an elbow into her back, and I had to stop myself from wincing.
"What did I say," Fiona hissed. "About that word? And you should be thanking Maeve. She's the reason you and your friends aren't behind bars right now."
Addy closed her eyes. "Oh, and why is that?"
"Becuase after you convinced everyone to turn themselves in, I sent Simon Says a message. I knew she would help. If she wanted you in jail, she would have turned you in herself." I wanted to scream at her, 'It was for your own good!"
"So instead, you let TJ rot away in jail?"
"I see it more like you guys aren't rotting away in jail because of me." I needed her to listen, needed all of them to listen to me for once.
One goddamn time.
"Maeve was right." Fiona smiled sweetly at me, and I felt my stomach turn sour. "I thought jail was too good for you all. I'm more of a 'death by a thousand cuts' kinda girl. And, I have to admit, I was impressed Maeve figured out how to message me back." Addy groaned as Fiona tightened her rope around her wrists. "Unlike your little murder friends, I can recognize talent when I see it. For a while, our interests were aligned. Maeve wanted to keep you all out of jail, and I wanted to keep playing with my toys." She tightened the last of Addy's bounds, stepping away from her.
"But now that you know who I am, I'm afraid playtime is over."
Addy nodded, her eyes welling up. "So what now?"
"Maeve and I made a deal. Someone has to pay the ultimate price for killing Jake. And that someone is you," Fiona spat. "And in return, your friends stay out of jail."
Addy's lip trembled. "So you're actually just gonna kill me?" A stray tear slid down her cheek.
"There was no other way, Addy," I whispered, my voice thick.
Fiona scoffed. "And the best part is, your friends will torture themselves for the rest of there lives for letting this happen to you. And my work will be done."
"No, Fiona." Addy gritted her teeth. "I promise you that you will rot in jail."
"Only if the police find your body, which they won't. I'm not gonna make the same mistakes you made with Jake," Fiona said.
"Ok," I started. "I gave you what you want." I turned to face her. "And now, you're going to delete that video. Right?" She paused.
"Right?"
She pulled her phone out of her jacket pocket. "Maeve," Addy pleaded.
"Permeneant delete," Fiona said, clicking the file. "Done." I squared my shoulders, and Fiona held out her hand for the gun.
We were really doing this, weren't we?
Addy started to cry, thick rivulets of tears streaming down her face. "I'm really sorry Addy. But one being dead is better than five in jail." I clicked the gun, placing it in Fiona's hands.
"Fuck you!" Addy yelled.
I felt like I was going to pass out.
Fiona scoffed. "I've been waiting for this moment for a long time. You're finally gonna get what you deserve."
"You're so fucking pathetic." Addy shook her head sadly.
"What did you say?"
Addy continued. "You let your obsession with a toxic shithead turn you into a psycho. Which, by the way, is what you call someone who plays Simon Says with their victims. So just fucking accept it already!"
"Jake didn't turn me into anything. He saw the real me. And he loved me for it. Jake was my person. And you took him away from me!" She screamed. I backed up, hitting my back on the counter. "Watching you and your little band of murder friends have each other. When you took him from me, I couldn't stand it. Now all I have left to fill the void inside me are tears." She laughed dryly. "And I'm done crying."
Addy sighed. "Are you finished?"
"Yeah." Fiona cocked the gun, setting her finger on the trigger. Addy kept her head up high, more tears rolling down her cheeks. I swallowed hard. My breathing was heavy.
Oh God, oh God, oh God.
"Simon says, game over." Fiona pulled the trigger, and the gun clicked. Addy gasped. Fiona looked at the gun with the hatred of someone who had just been betrayed. I knew that looked all too well.
She pulled the trigger again, and Addy looked down at her chest, no bullet holes marring her body. Fiona clicked the gun again and again, opening the magazine and spinning it around. I quietly picked up one of the air canisters from the counter behind me, groping around until I had a firm grasp on it. Please let this work, please let this work, please let this work, I prayed.
Because I hadn't put any bullets in the gun.
"Are you fucking kidding me!" She screamed, turning on me with the gun. I screamed, swinging the canister full force at her head. Addy screamed, and Fiona went down with a crack. The empty gun flew out of her hand, landing on the floor in front of me. Addy looked at me in shock, her mouth gaping.
"What the hell?" She screamed. I dropped the canister, running over to her. "I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I'm sorry! I'm really, really sorry. I'm really sorry Addy-" I picked up the gun, placed it on the counter and grabbed my bag.
She dropped her head back in her chair. "Oh. My. God."
My hands shook as I pulled open a plastic bag. "The plan wasn't gonna work without her deleting the footage. This was the only way to get that done and get her fingerprints on the gun." I placed the gun inside, meeting her eyes. "I'm so sorry."
She shook her head. "And yours."
"Wrong. I put wax on my fingertips. They use this trick in all the heist movies." I scraped the wax off with my nail.
"Maeve? Just fucking untie me!" She screamed.
I felt like I was going to throw up. "Ok, oh my God I'm so sorry. I'm sorry, I'm sorry-" I started to undo her binds.
"God, you could have warned me." Tears of what I hoped was relief flooded her eyes. "Ow, fuck." She rubbed one of her wrists.
"I'm so sorry.."
Addy tried to kick out one of her legs. "How the hell did she tie this?"
I got her other wrist free. "I'm really sorry."
"Stop saying that, can we just hurry?"
I nodded, "Yeah-yes." I finished untying her, and heard the basement door slam shut.
Addy rubbed her wrists, looking up. "Ok, let's-"
I sprinted over to the door, "OhmyGodohmyGodohmyGodshitshitshit!" I pounded on the door. "No! No!" I screamed. "Fuck, I think we're trapped."
Nononononononono.
I tried pounding on the door again. "Open the door! Fiona!"
"Fiona open the fucking door!" Addy screamed. "Let us out!"
All we got was silence in return. This was not a part of the plan. The plan was to trick Fiona, save everyone, and all live happily ever after.
But when did that ever work for me?
I pulled on the latch with all of my strength, willing it to pop open. Tears started flowing down my cheeks.
I hadn't saved anyone.
I fucking killed them.
"Maeve!" Addy yelled. I gave one last pull on the door when I turned back to her. Thick, black smoke had started to fill the bottom of the basement. "Oh my God…oh my God, oh my God, oh my God, oh my God."
"Help!" Addy screamed. "Help! Help!" She pounded on the walls. The smoke alarm started to blare and Addy grabbed my arm. "Get close to the ground," she coughed.
"I'm sorry Addy. You weren't supposed to get hurt. You weren't supposed to get hurt," I sobbed. She pulled me into a hug on the floor. The smoke was thickening now, and I could feel my lungs start to give out. I wheezed, seeing black spots in my vision.
"Guys!" Cooper yelled, opening the latch to the basement. "Addy? Maeve? Janae yelled. She grabbed Addy by the shoulders. "Let's go, we have to go. Nate get Addy," she told him. Nate threw his shoulder under Addy's helping her out of the basement.
Cooper shook my arm. "Are you ok? It's gonna be ok." He scooped his arm under mine and Janae grabbed my other side. "Wait! Wait, wait, wait!" I wheezed. "The gun, you have to get the gun!" I felt my lungs start to burn. "Where?" Cooper yelled. "The gun," I repeated. "The gun is in my bag! The guns in the bag!" I pointed frantically. Cooper went back for it, and Janae helped me up the stairs.
And then I blacked out.
Five days later
"I don't wanna talk to you." I rapped my knuckles across the door of Bronwyn's hospital room.
"You can't shut me out forever…" I told her, walking into the room and closing the door behind me. After she started the boat on fire, Fiona had ditched us. She had escaped on a raft, and had been met with Bronwyn at the docks. I didn't know what had gone down, given that every time I had gone to see her, she had been sleeping or not wanting to talk, but apparently she had gotten stabbed in the shoulder.
She rolled onto her side so she didn't have to face me. "Are you serious?" I asked.
"Trust me, ignoring you is by far the kindest thing I can muster right now."
I took a step closer to the bed. "Bronwyn, your plan was not going to work without deleting that footage and getting her fingerprints on the gun. I saved you-"
"You have no way of knowing if that's true. And you never will." She rolled back to face me. "How long were you talking to her? How long, were you going behind our fucking backs?"
I swallowed. "I had to go behind your backs because you never listen to me." I shook my head. "I just wanted a vote."
"No…you wanted us to do whatever you said, because you think you're smarter than everyone else. Trust me, I know that feeling." She paused. "But I never would have done what you did."
I felt my eyes start to water. "You would be rotting in jail right now, and Fiona would be walking around free if I hadn't done what I did."
"But instead, I'm lying in a hospital bed, lucky to be alive. And so is Cooper. You want me to put a ribbon on you and tell you you're a hero, but you're not. You tipped her off. You're a traitor, and I need you to get out of my room."
"Bronwyn, I needed her to trust me.."
"Well now I can never trust you."
"Bronwyn," I whispered.
"Get the fuck out of my room Maeve. Get out!" She yelled.
I let a tear roll down my cheek. "Okay.."
I walked out of the room, passing a reception desk with a lady who asked if I was ok. I just nodded numbly. I was on the verge of letting myself break down when I rounded the corner, and Addy, Nate and Janae were walking in. They were laughing, holding flowers and balloons. They stopped talking when they saw me. Janae stepped forward and I brushed past her as quickly as I could.
And I cried.
I cried hard. For me, for Bronwyn, for Janae.
And for the life I had eternally fucked.