Chapter 4

I laughed, but it looked more like I was crying.

"Can't stand it? I haven't even gotten to the poisonous part yet!"

I pointed at Nathan, gritting my teeth so hard they could've cracked.

"I supported him for three years. The minute he graduated high school, I brought him out of that dead-end farm town.

"I introduced him to my family, my friends, my girlfriend.

"And what does he do? He shamelessly goes and—"

Smack!

The sharp crack of a slap cut off everything I hadn't finished saying.

My head snapped to the side. The pain crept slowly across my cheek and up to my ear.

For a moment, all I could hear was ringing.

I turned my head back, dazed.

Mom's face was flushed red, her hand not quite lowered.

She was breathing hard with anger.

For some reason, I suddenly remembered falling off my bike as a kid while learning to ride.

She'd cried her eyes out over me.

I lowered my gaze and saw her hand was shaking too, but her voice was ice cold.

"Adrian, can't you see it yet? Evelyn and Nathan truly love each other.

"They're just kindhearted. They only kept it from you because of your condition!"

I looked at Evelyn.

I wanted to ask her. I wanted to hear it from her own mouth.

But all I saw was her shielding Nathan behind her and gently covering his ears.

Sophie frowned and sighed.

"Adrian, stop making a scene. For the sake of your health, Evelyn's still going to treat you the same as before."

Ryan took a few steps toward me, softening his tone.

"Adrian, just pretend today never happened, okay? Let me take you home."

Their words were weightless, yet one after another they tore my heart to shreds.

It hurt. God, it hurt.

The voice in my head popped up again.

My eyes landed on the knife on the table, the one they'd just used to cut Evelyn and Nathan's wedding cake.

I grabbed it, gripped it tight, and aimed the tip at Nathan.

Everyone's faces changed again. This time, it was fear.

"Adrian, what are you doing? Put the knife down!"

The words had barely left their mouth when someone kicked the arm holding the knife, hard.

The pain was blinding. My vision went black.

I collapsed to the ground, my wrist bent at a horribly unnatural angle.

Ryan's voice was piercing.

"Adrian's getting worse. He just pointed a knife at Nathan.

"He's not just going to hurt himself now. He's going to hurt other people too!"

As he spoke, he grabbed my collar and dragged me backward.

My wrist scraped along the ground, and the pain broke me out in a cold sweat.

Evelyn's voice was ice.

"Tie him up so he doesn't have another episode."

Evelyn used to never say I was sick.

She always said I only felt so insecure because of what she'd done wrong.

But now, the way she looked at me was no different from the way you'd look at a psych patient.

Afraid Ryan couldn't handle me alone, Sophie came over and pinned my legs down.

Rough rope wound around me, over and over, binding me to a chair.

I fought back, my eyes bloodshot.

When Ryan saw that, he ran into the house, came back with a basin of ice water, and dumped it over my head.

"Adrian, snap out of it! Pull yourself together!"

A cold breeze blew, and my soaked clothes clung to me. I shivered.

Nathan walked toward me with a blanket, looking like he couldn't bear to watch.

I stared at him blankly and saw the corner of his mouth curl into a smile.

Then I watched him twist his ankle and fall to the ground.

Curses and screams erupted around me at once.

Someone gave me a hard shove.

The chair toppled over, and my forehead slammed into a stone jutting out of the yard.

Warm liquid trickled into my eyes.

The last thing I saw was all of them crowding around Nathan and rushing him out of the yard.

No one noticed that the chair had knocked over a candle on the table.

The candle set the tablecloth on fire.

The flames raced along the spilled wine.

Two hours later, they came back from the hospital.

-

Third-person POV

The moment they got out of the car, everyone saw flames shooting into the sky over the neighborhood and thick black smoke billowing up.

A security guard spotted them and rushed over.

"You're the ones renting Number Six, right? It just caught fire! You'd better get over there!"

Remembering Adrian tied up in the yard, every one of them went deathly pale.