You never fucking do, you selfish piece of shit.
You’re so fucking stupid, Jaden.
Camaro’s fate was tragically no different than Clive and Owen’s.Failure got you killed around here, especially if that failure involved me.And I was theonlycontributing factor to Camaro’s “failure” in keeping me safe.Still, she didn’t deserve her fate, but I did deserve the pain of her loss.And so did Darren.
He would learn very soon, because now, the only thing I had left to fucking lose was my sanity.And to be honest, I wasn’t sure I even wanted it anymore.
You never really realize how exhausting self-loathing can be until you find yourself struggling to keep your head above water after only a few minutes of rage swimming.It gave Sloane the chance to finally catch up to me, and when she did, I elbowed her in the face the second she grabbed for my waist.
“Get off me, Sloane!”
“Jaden, stop!”
“Get off me!Let go!Stop!”But she didn’t let go, and instead dragged me back to shallower water while I thrashed in her arms.“Let me go!”
When we were closer to shore, she shoved me down until my ass hit the sand and the water was barely touching my ribs.Fighting her, I ripped off the stupid neckless Darren had given me yesterday and chucked it into the ocean, never wanting to see it again.
Ignoring my protest, Sloane wrapped her arms around me and pulled me into her chest where I collapsed against her into another fit of tears.
“I’m sorry, Jaden,” Sloane murmured, stroking back my wet hair.“I’m so sorry.I know how much she meant to you.”
I had nothing to say in return.All I could do was cry.My heart was broken into tiny pieces I no longer recognized, and they would never again fit back together.The one light I had in this dark world I was forced to live in was snuffed out right in front of me, and on my birthday, no less.And I was once again alone.
But then I felt another set of slender arms wrap around me from behind.
“I’m here, too, Jaden,” Katherine murmured softly.“I’m here, and I’m not going anywhere.”
I sniffed back my own self-pity to appreciate her, appreciate both of them.“Thank you.”
The three of us sat there in the water under the warm sun for what felt like hours, not saying a single word, but also not needing to.My pain was witnessed and shared, though Sloane and Katherine could hardly shoulder the weight of the grief and guilt I felt, but I was still grateful for their strength all the same.
When I had finally expelled the last of my tears and my body started to shiver, only then did Sloane leave to fetch us some towels.Alone with Katherine, we both stared at each other through puffy, bloodshot eyes, my anguish an infectious disease I didn’t wish upon anyone.
“What can I do, Jaden?”she pleaded.“Tell me, what can I do?Is there anything?”
Sniffing back my tears, I searched in my depleted mind for a solution, any kind of tonic that could remedy my heartbreak, but all I could find was the sticky black tar of despair that clogged my veins.I felt numb inside, no pulse to be found.But as I recognized the hope lingering in Katherine’s eyes, the ooze in my heart began to grease the rusted wheels in my brain.
“What if I told you there was?”I replied, the wheels spinning faster now, inspired by a small drop of derangement and a sudden tidal wave of blood-red vengeance.
She stared back at me with a familiar kind of determination.“Tell me.”
Now may finally be the time I play that Ace I’d been hiding in my sleeve for too damn long.
“Are you able to talk to your father unsupervised?”
Katherine’s brows furrowed, but she nodded.“Yes.”
“How soon could you get a message out to him?”
She blinked a few times at me, her lips folding in on each other as she thought to herself.“I suppose right now, assuming Daniel is busy so I wouldn’t be interrupted.What message?”
“The evidence I told you about at Dominic’s funeral that cleared your family’s name?It was in the form of a letter from their mother, Diana.She confessed to orchestrating her death to frame your family with the hopes of starting a war.”
Katherine remained silent as she listened, her hand still rubbing soothing circles into my shoulders that continued to shake from the cold.
“But…why would she do that?”Katherine whispered, hurt in her voice.
“She thought your family was strong enough to win the war, and if Warren and his syndicate didn’t survive it, Diana’s sons would be free of their father and his horrid influence.”