Chapter Fifty-Three: Lucy

CHAPTER FIFTY-THREELUCY

Matt is waiting for me outside the hospital.

I look like absolute shit—a black eye, three stitches in my eyebrow, a bruise starting to form on my chin. Luckily my nose isn’t broken, but my entire face is vibrating in pain.

“Oh my god.” Matt rushes over to me. I see my parents, not far behind him. Ben left a while ago, because I was tired of his hovering. I told him I didn’t need him to call anyone for me, but I can see that my request was ignored.

“I’m going to kill Emmett,” Matt says.

My parents stop not far behind him. Dad’s chest is rising and falling too quickly. Mom’s eyes are red, and she won’t look at me.

“You saw him that night,” I say. Matt has the decency to look embarrassed.

“After you,” he says. “You ran away, and then Emmett appeared a second later, crying and saying he’d seen you kill her.”

“And you just believed him.”

“You said—you said…” He clenches both fists in frustration, and I instinctively take a step back. “You were covered in blood, mumbling something about killing! And you said she deserved it, and ‘Savvy tried to.’ What was I supposed to think?”

“She tried to save me,” I say. “That was the end of that sentence. Savvy tried to save me, and he killed her.”

“Oh, Lucy,” Mom says, and moves like she’s going to hug me. I step back, shaking my head.

“The cops want to talk to you,” I say.

Dad gapes at me. I thought that I was too exhausted to feel even more annoyed, but apparently I’m not. I don’t know where he finds the nerve to look surprised.

“You lied to them. Hid evidence. Good luck with that.”

Mom’s mouth drops open.

“We were protecting you,” Matt says. “You have to understand. Me, your parents—we thought we were protecting you.”

“No, you didn’t,” I snap. “You protected yourself, Matt. You knew what would happen if I started telling people the truth. You knew what would come out.”

Matt’s face reddens. Both my parents are statues, tears streaming down Mom’s face.

I step away from them. “The only person who ever protected me was Savvy.”