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There’s so almost like pain in his voice, and I don’t understand where it’s co of his words, a knife twists in my stomach

I guessed at the truth I practically knew it already But this is the first tiotten direct confirmation of the timeline

This ht I saved his life

I’m not a new toy, a shiny distraction

I’m an old, deep obsession

“Then why did you do it?” I ask, my voice raspy and low “If you know I can take care of et rid of Natalie?”

“Because you didn’t” His voice is blunt, honest “Because despite everything you’ve been through, you’re still a better person than the world has any right to expect you to be”

I alood person in years Maybe not ever Not that I can remember, anyway “You obviously don’t know me as well as you think you do”

“I never said I know you”

So shifts in his tone as he says the words, and itrip on e hand coertips of his other brush over aze

I’ve still got on the tank top I wore to the te over aze tracks the movement of his hand as he finds the scar from the bullet wound on my upper chest

My breath catches in h ainst them

That bullet was the one that did the least dae The one lower on my sternum and the one in my shoulder are the two that almost killed me But all three of the circular scars on ht I almost died

Marcus’s fingertip stops on the s it completely As if all these years later, he can somehow stanch the flow of blood that poured from that wound

“What…” My voice doesn’t want to work I have to force the words out, and they’re barely above a whisper when they finally pass ?”