CHAPTER TWENTY SIX

I never thought that Lowenstein would say anything to them. Was that why they had been trying to keep me out of the plan to rescue Jesse?

However, even if he had, they should have said something to me.

“We have to focus on what to do now,” Beth says, and I look in the direction where everyone is sitting. “Taylor is our friend. I don’t want her to feel like this. We’re already hurting her. But I just—I keep remembering how she just killed everyone.”

Quill comforts her, “It’ll take some time for us to come to terms with what she did. That doesn’t mean we hate her. She’ll understand.”

I don’t want to hear anymore.

Slumping back against a tree, I sink to the ground, tears spilling down my face.

Understand?

They can’t even look at me.

All those words to placate me, to tell me that they will always be my side, were they ever true? If this had been Quill or Beth, I would have stuck by them. To know that they couldn’t do the same is a painful revelation.

I lean my head back against