Cruel Kisses (It's Just High School #2) - Thandiwe Mpofu Page 0,121

I cry, but he cuts me off, his body rigid.

“Stop lying!” he shouts making me gasp as fat, hot tears run down my face non-stop. He clenches his jaw so tight, I swear I can hear his molars grinding. “Just stop lying.”

I need to defend myself. I need to find my voice somewhere where it’s drowning and speak up, but for some reason, I can’t.

“It all makes sense now,” he mutters, staring at me with a withering look that makes me shrink into myself. “The way you ran away. The whole thing with your stranded car, with the busted-out window with traces of your blood in there. You did that, didn’t you?”

Shit.

“Julian…”

“That was you, wasn’t it? You did that shit deliberately.”

All I can do is nod. What else can I do?

“Shit,” Liam murmurs, looking at me like I’m a complete stranger.

“But it’s not what you think!” I rush to say, panting, with my heart thundering wildly in my chest with a desperation that leaves a bitter taste in my mouth. “I swear I was doing as I was told,” I say, looking at Julian as I say that, but he looks away. He could have physically slapped me with that move alone, I wouldn’t have felt the kind of pain searing through my heart.

“Yes, as your father told you!” Liam grits out, his voice barely audible with the anger it’s laced in. “You planted that shit to make it seem like someone kidnapped you, didn’t you?”

No! That’s not true.

“I was running!”

“You were planting the evidence they needed to destroy my brother!” Liam growls, cutting me off. Cole stands in the corner, deathly silent. He hasn’t said a word since we got here, but also hasn’t looked away from me, his dead, impassive stare penetrating into me, making me shiver.

“No, Nicky told me to run!” She told me to run. I did. Please believe me. I’d never do this.

“Why the fuck would she tell you to run?” Cole questions now, pushing away from the wall.

“She said,” I stutter, then clear my throat, hanging on to the small frisson of hope in my belly. Maybe Cole believes me. He has to! “She said my life was in danger if I stayed here and that I had to run.”

“Danger from what, Mia?” Liam demands, his eyes glittering brightly like he’s trying his best not to cry.

“I don’t know,” I whisper, shame slamming into me like the blades of a chopper. Right now, I can’t tell black from white, and I sure as hell can’t remember what happened the night Nancy died and Nicky practically kicked me out the Fitzgerald mansion. Was it under the guise of danger? But it had to be, I saw her on the floor. My father had struck her across the cheek.

“Because you’re lying!”

“No, she said I was in danger from you, your father and…”

“Urgh, for God’s sake, just stop talking, Mia!” Liam shouts. “You’ve won! You told me that you were going to get your revenge, that you were going to teach us a lesson, well guess what, you own at that! You won at life.”

“No, that was before,” I croak, my eyes wide with panic. I’m losing them. I can see it in the way they regard me, with so much contempt and no idea where to go from here. I hate myself too at this point.

For going along with shit I had no understanding of.

For trusting someone who had continuously shown that she didn’t give a damn about me since birth.

For hanging on with a firm grip on false hope that sliced through my palms.

“Mia”

I jerk up, quickly wiping away my tears when I realize Cole was calling my name. For a. second, sympathy fills his eyes, but Julian pours himself another drink, then throws the empty decanter to the wall where it shatters. That might as well have been the stupid, black heart I gave him. I flinch.

“You said that was before, what did you mean? Before what?” Cole questions, his eyes narrowed on me, like he’s filtering each word I utter for bullshit. It’s not. I just don’t know how to tell him what’s in my broken soul. That I said all that shit before I knew better.

That was before I knew the truth, before I realized that I’d rather hurt myself before I bring any kind of pain into my boys’ lives. They saved me. Cole cared for me. Liam made me laugh and Julian, he brought me to life and now he