Trish attempted to call off the date she’d been talking about for the last two weeks, but I refused to let her do that. I was an emotional mess and I wanted to spend the night alone. I was more than happy to watch Trish walk out the door an hour later.

I laid on the couch and cried for most of the night. At some point, I fell into a fitful sleep. Memories of the night I’d kept under lock and key were released and I had no choice but to relive it all over again. Except my nightmare was different this time. This time I was the victim.

The sound of gunshots rang out and Kyle’s screams broke my heart all over again. And then there was the intruder’s face—Sebastian’s icy eyes cut through me, leaving me feeling cold and afraid.

He turned away from my mother’s lifeless body and made his way toward me.

“You’re next you little bitch,” he growled in my face.

His fingers dug into my arms, pinning me to the door of my parents’ room, and then he leaned in and kissed me.

I was tossing on the couch, when I heard a strange noise. My eyes opened, my senses on alert, and I sat up in the darkness of the room. I gasped when a shadow shifted against the wall across from me.

When the face was no longer shielded by the obscurities of the night, I wasn’t flooded with any sort of relief. She stood across from me, a gun in her hand, and there was no tremble as she took a step forward and pointed it at me.

“What are you doing here, Vick?” I asked, standing from the couch and praying my knees held me up.

“Don’t play stupid, Rosslyn, you know why I’m here,” she hissed.

The moonlight peeking through the curtains reflected against the metal in her grasp, and I watched her eyes shift toward the gun briefly before turning hate-filled eyes on me.

“Ironic, isn’t it?” she asked.

“What?” I tried to keep the shudder from my voice.

“That I’m going kill you with the gun I killed your parents with. I know you don’t want to hear this,” she shrugged, “but it was a fucking rush like no other.”

My stomach lurched, but I didn’t give her the satisfaction of reacting to her words.

“You’re lying. That gun’s in Sebastian’s safe.”

She scoffed, “I took it, you little twit. After you ran out and Sebastian followed, it wasn’t hard to grab.”

“Why are you doing this?”

“Because you’re a bitch who took something that didn’t belong to you. Sebastian’s mine—always has been. I should’ve been the one he fell in love with. We’re the same, him and I.”

“You’re wrong,” I said calmly. “He’s not a killer.”

“Even after everything he told you, you’re still in love with him, aren’t you?”

I knew answering her was only going to piss her off even more, but if I was going to die, I needed to say it out loud.

“Yes. I still love him.”

I closed my eyes and envisioned Sebastian’s face—his smile. He was such a loving person—broken, but loving. I suddenly had a clear head, which was weird, considering there was a gun pointed at me.

The clarity of the situation hit me. Seeing how sick and twisted Vick really was, there was no way Sebastian was anything like her. Sure, he had no business being in my house the night of my parent’s murder, but Sebastian could never kill someone—he couldn’t.

“You forgive him?”

“I’m not so sure there’s anything to forgive. He didn’t pull the trigger, you did. He was just in the wrong place at the wrong time.”

“You’re a stupid bitch. I’ll be doing the world a favor by taking you out,” she said, leveling the gun at my face.

My heart was beating so hard, it was beginning to hurt. “If being in love means being stupid, then yeah, I guess I’m a stupid bitch.”

“Well, the world’s about to be one stupid bitch short. He’s mine, and I don’t share.”

“I’m not going to tell anyone, Vick.”

“And I should believe you, why?”

“Because, if I was going to turn you in I would have gone straight to the police station after I left Sebastian.”

“Maybe you won’t tell, but I’m not taking any chances.”

“Sebastian won’t want you just because I’m dead. And when he finds out you’re the one who…” I couldn’t get the words past my lips.

“Killed you? Pulled the trigger? Ended your sorry life? Don’t worry, Sebastian will realize I did this for him. I’m the one who stuck with him over the years. I watched from the side as he fucked everything with a pussy, but I never had to worry because Sebastian didn’t fall in love. At least he didn’t, until you.”