Chapter 191

Elias presses his forehead against the bus’s cold glass as he retraces the last fourteen days. He spent his two-week medical leave in a cramped, damp apartment waiting to heal, all while the memory of Lucia slamming her bedroom door on his face played an endless loop in his head.

He wonders how she’s managing, though. He knows she’s too stubborn to let the world see her break, but he can’t help but worry about her, given everything he’s put her through lately. He checks the black brace beneath his uniform trousers as he admits to himself that he deserves every bit of the silent treatment she’s dishing out.

He probably also deserves the bullet her father chose not to fire.

The bus screeches to a halt across from Westerfield Academy gates. He tries to recall if the school always looked this intimidating all the times he took the bus before. He steps down onto the pavement, his left leg aching still slightly aching even through the piles of pain meds he shoved down