Selena

The morning air felt heavier than it should have.

Quinn barely remembered getting dressed. One second she had been lying in bed beside Damian, still caught in the warmth of his arms and the unfamiliar comfort of not waking up alone, and the next she was standing in front of the bathroom mirror trying to steady her breathing while Mark’s words repeated inside her head.

It’s Arjun.

Behind her, Damian leaned against the doorway, unusually quiet for once. His hair was still messy from sleep.

“You okay?” he asked softly.

Quinn let out a dry laugh. “What do you think, genius?”

“Quinn.”

She closed her eyes briefly before grabbing her jacket from the counter. “I don’t have time to fall apart right now.”

Damian stepped closer this time, slower than usual, like he was learning how to approach her without making her retreat. “I was thinking you’re trying really hard not to.”

For a moment she said nothing, that annoyed her more than if he had pushed.

Because he was right.

The drive to the crime scene was quieter than any moment they had shared before. The tension between them still lingered from the night before.

Quinn kept her eyes on the road while Damian watched her carefully from the passenger seat, his knee occasionally brushing hers every time the car turned.

Finally, he spoke.

“You cared about him, didn't you?”

Quinn tightened her grip on the steering wheel slightly. “Arjun was one of the few decent people in that school.”

Damian stayed quiet, letting her continue at her own pace.

“He used to save me a seat in class when nobody else would,” she admitted after a moment, her voice lower now. “When things got ugly, he pretended not to notice. I think that was his way of helping.”

Damian looked at her then, really looked at her, and something in his expression softened painfully.

“I hate this,” he murmured.

Quinn glanced at him briefly. “The case?”

“The idea of something happening to you.”

The words landed harder than they should have.

She looked away too quickly, her pulse suddenly uneven for reasons that had nothing to do with the investigation. Damian had this frustrating way of saying things like they were simple facts instead of dangerous confessions.

Quinn parked the car without replying.

The crime scene had already been blocked off by the time they arrived, flashing lights cutting through the quiet neighborhood. But the second Quinn stepped inside the small alley behind the café, she knew Mark had been right.

This was different.

The earlier murders had been clean and perfect. This one looked angry.

Broken glass covered the ground near the wall. One of the trash bins had been knocked over during the struggle, its contents scattered across the pavement. Blood stained the concrete in sharp uneven streaks that immediately made Quinn’s stomach tighten.

Arjun had fought back.

Mark approached them the moment he noticed Quinn. His usual calm expression had hardened, though his eyes lingered on her a second longer than necessary. “You shouldn’t have come alone.”

“She wasn’t alone,” Damian answered before Quinn could.

Mark’s gaze shifted toward him briefly, unreadable. “Right.”

The tension between the two men was subtle, but Quinn noticed it immediately.

Unfortunately, so did Damian.

Quinn crouched near the body, forcing herself into detective mode before emotion could catch up with her. Arjun’s knuckles were bruised badly, skin torn from impact. There were shallow cuts along his arms, defensive wounds.

“He knew the attacker,” Damian said quietly from behind her. “Or he got close enough to recognize them.”

Quinn’s eyes moved lower.

Something red was caught tightly in Arjun’s fingers.

Fabric, very small and torn.

Mark noticed it too. “Forensics thinks he ripped it off during the struggle.”

Quinn carefully looked over the rest of the scene, her thoughts moving fast now despite the ache building in her chest.

Then she saw it- a shaky mark against the wall beside the body. Barely visible beneath the blood.

A broken letter... could be I, R or L.

Her expression changed instantly.

“What is it?” Damian asked.

Quinn stared at it for a second longer before standing slowly. “Could be nothing.”

But it didn’t feel like nothing.

Before Damian could ask anything else, the sound of hurried footsteps echoed from the other side of the alley.

A woman pushed past the police tape before one of the officers could stop her properly. She looked around twenty-six or twenty-seven, dressed too elegantly for the chaos surrounding her, dark sunglasses still perched on top of her head despite the cloudy morning. Her breathing was uneven, panic written all over her face as her eyes searched the scene frantically.

Then they landed on the body.

“Oh my God…”

The words left her like they had been punched out of her chest.

She froze.

Mark immediately stood straighter. “Ma’am, you can’t be here.”

The woman looked at her like she hadn’t even heard the warning. “Arjun…” she whispered, taking another step forward before stopping herself abruptly. Her hands trembled slightly as she covered her mouth. “No. No, no…”

Mark appeared beside Quinn almost immediately. “Selena Daniels,” he said quietly under his breath. “Restaurant owner and local socialite. We were about to contact her.”

Quinn’s eyes narrowed slightly. “Why?”

Mark glanced toward the woman. “She was dating him.”

That made Damian look up instantly.

Selena finally seemed to notice the officers surrounding her. She swallowed hard before forcing herself to look away from the body, but her composure never fully returned. Even trying to stay calm, grief cracked through every movement.

“I called him last night,” she said suddenly, her voice uneven. “He didn’t answer.”

Quinn stepped closer carefully. “You were with him yesterday?”

Selena nodded faintly before brushing a strand of hair behind her ear with shaking fingers. “Not long. We argued.”

Damian and Quinn exchanged a quick glance.

“What about?” Quinn asked.

Selena laughed softly then, but there was nothing stable about the sound. “That’s the funny part. I don’t even remember.” Her eyes drifted back toward the alley. “God… I should’ve stayed.”

Quinn noticed everything. The smudged mascara she clearly hadn’t fixed. The expensive heels splattered with dirt from running through the alley without caring. The way her eyes kept darting toward Arjun like she still expected him to sit up and laugh this off somehow.

Selena suddenly looked directly at Quinn.

“You’re Quinn Hale, right?”

The question caught her slightly off guard. “Yes.”

“I’ve heard about you,” Selena said softly. “Arjun talked about you a lot.”

That tightened something uncomfortably inside Quinn’s chest.

Before she could respond, Selena continued quietly, “He said you were the only person from school who never pretended to be someone else.”

Quinn didn’t know what to say to that.

The alley suddenly felt smaller.

More personal.

Mark stepped in smoothly before the silence could stretch too long. “Ms. Daniels, we’ll need a formal statement.”

Selena nodded absently, though her eyes lingered on Quinn another second longer before finally looking away.

As an officer guided her toward one of the patrol cars, Damian leaned slightly closer to Quinn. “Well,” he murmured carefully, “she’s either genuinely devastated…”

“Or very convincing,” Quinn finished.

But even as she said it, her attention drifted back toward the broken mark near the wall.

I.

R.

L.

It sat there in silence, unfinished and taunting, while somewhere behind her Selena’s quiet crying echoed through the street.

Quinn's eyes went wide, "Wait, Mark said he was about to contact her... then how did she know where to come?"

"I told her", Rhea stepped in.