Chapter 16

Derek’s POV

It wasn’t going to be easy. Hell, the last thing this was going to be was easy.

Fuck! Lia, sweetie, what the fuck have you done?

I kept replaying Walter’s words in my head, trying to find something, anything that could help me prove Lia’s innocence. God! None of this made any fucking sense.

I rubbed at the throbbing pain in my head when Lia’s screams echoed in the back of my mind, not stopping anytime soon. I hated myself for making Walter tell her that I was dead. I hated hearing her yearn for me, her voice breaking from shock and sadness, painful denial writ in her voice.

But I would be lying if I said it didn’t make my heart happy as fuck when I realized that even the possibility of my being dead and no more in this world would make her that fucking sad, like she couldn’t even ever accept it for it would be too painful. Her cries for me broke and fixed me all at the same time.

I never doubted how much she cared for me. But the way she was avoiding eye contact with me at