Chapter 382: Half drowned pt 2
The street was quiet except for the hush of the rain, that soft rhythm against the pavement that made everything feel sharper, the air, the light, the ache in my throat. Sarah stood there, perfect and untouched in her beige coat, looking at me like I was the one who had lost my mind.
I took a step closer, my voice trembling but steady enough to cut through the noise. "You told him, didn’t you?"
"I already said—" she began, but I didn’t let her.
"Don’t," I snapped. "Don’t lie to me, Sarah. You’re the one person I told. The only one. So tell me... why would you do that to me? Why would you take something so painful, something I could barely even say out loud, and use it like that?"
Her lips opened, and for a second I thought I saw something real underneath her expression not guilt, but annoyance. Then it was all gone, replaced with trembling confusion.
"Aria, I don’t even know what you’re talking about," she said, voice breaking in that perfectly fragile way. "Why would I ever hurt you? You’re my best friend."
I shook my head, feeling tears sting behind my eyes. "Because you did. Because who else would tell him right on the same day I told you?"
Sarah’s expression softened, like she was about to start crying herself. "You really think I’d do that? Maybe someone overheard. Maybe someone else found out and wanted to make us fight. You ever think about that? That maybe this is exactly what they wanted... to turn you against me?"
"Cut the bullshit," I said.
Her eyes widened slightly, the faintest crack in her mask and for a second, she looked like she didn’t recognize me.
"What did you just say?" she whispered.
"I said stop pretending." My voice shook, but I didn’t back down. "You told him, Sarah. I know it. And I told you because I trusted you, because I thought—" my throat closed for a moment, "—I thought you were someone I could trust. Because you were my goddamn best friend."
"I was protecting you!" she cried suddenly, and the words tore out of her like she’d been waiting to use them.
I froze.
Her chest was rising and falling fast, eyes bright now with something that wasn’t just emotion but anger, conviction, the kind that made my skin crawl.
"Do you think I wanted to tell him?" she said, stepping closer. "Do you think I wanted to see you hurt? I had to. Because you weren’t going to. Because you were never going to tell him, and he was going to find out anyway, maybe from someone worse, maybe from someone who’d destroy you with it. I did it to protect you, Aria. To protect you from him."
Her voice dropped on that last word, almost reverent, almost poisonous.
I stared at her, too stunned to breathe for a second. "Protect me?" I repeated, my voice breaking. "You told the man I love that I lost our baby behind my back and you think that’s protecting me?"
Sarah blinked, and for the smallest instant, the softness in her eyes slipped. The look beneath was sharp, cold, something dark and unashamed.
"Yes," she said quietly. "Because he’s not who you think he is. And one day, you’ll thank me for it."
The rain picked up again, heavier, louder, like the sky itself wanted to drown out the silence that followed.
I didn’t move. I couldn’t.
Sarah took a step toward me, her hand trembling as she reached out like she could smooth this over with a touch. "Aria... please," she said, voice shivering on the edges of control. "You have to understand. I did it because I love you, because no one else does the way I do, because he’s going to ruin you and I couldn’t just stand by and watch it happen."
Her words hit like rain against glass, hard, shapeless, too much at once. I blinked, shaking my head. "What are you even saying?"
Sarah’s eyes flickered, wide and fevered, the fragile veneer she always wore beginning to crack. "He’s not good for you," she whispered, her tone rising and falling between devotion and desperation. "He never was. You don’t see it because you’ve been blinded by him, by the way he looks at you, the way he touches you, he’s changed you, Aria. He’s taken everything pure about you and twisted it. You used to tell me everything. You used to need me."
My heart dropped into my stomach. "Sarah, stop—"
"I’m trying to protect you!" she snapped, the sudden sharpness in her voice making me flinch. Then, as quickly as it came, her expression softened into something almost tender, almost pleading. "I just want you to be safe, Aria. I can’t lose you too. You’re all I have."
Her hand hovered inches from mine, trembling like she wanted to pull me close, to force this twisted thing between us back into the shape of friendship.
But I couldn’t move. I could barely breathe.
The words she said spun around in my head, the meaning blurring... love, protect, ruin. It didn’t make sense. Nothing did. The woman standing in front of me was my best friend, the person who had held me through the worst nights of my life, the one who’d promised she’d never hurt me—and yet every word spilling out of her mouth was a knife cutting deeper.
"Sarah," I whispered, my throat raw, "you hurt me."
Her lips parted, but no sound came out. For the first time, her face went utterly blank, and that scared me more than anything else she’d said.
So I turned.
I didn’t wait for her to speak, didn’t trust myself to hear anything else she had to say. My bag slipped from my shoulder as I walked, but I didn’t care. The rain swallowed the world again, cool and heavy, washing the heat off my skin as I stepped into it.
"Aria!" Sarah’s voice echoed behind me, cracked and small, like she was falling apart. "Please don’t go... please!"
But I didn’t stop.
I couldn’t.
I kept walking until her voice was gone, until the sound of the rain was the only thing left, steady, endless, like it could drown everything I’d just heard.
My heart felt like it had been hollowed out, and as I lifted my hand to wipe my face, I realized I didn’t know if it was rain or tears soaking my skin anymore.