Chapter Forty-Six Willa

Chapter Forty-Six

Willa

Now: Monday, 6:05 a.m.

Delaney sits across from us on a dining room chair, hands tied behind her back with makeshift restraints Liam and I fashioned from a knotted bedsheet. She's serving up that maddeningly glib expression that wriggles under my skin. The smug, blank stretch of her that few ever get to see. But I have, fleetingly, over the years. Delaney is frigid and bleak as the deepest ocean. A vast expanse of nothing to drown in.

I knew, deep down, that something about her was wrong. Fled her and her suffocating "friendship." I let her believe it was me, that I was the weak link, when actually I was strong. Strong enough to see her and get the hell away.

Sleeping with her boyfriend was stupid. Reckless. But sending that video to Yale admissions was a death wish.

"Del" is all Liam can say, his voice irritatingly soft.

"Liam, please, she's crazy." She means Piper, who ran downstairs with the wireless cables a few minutes ago. In her absence, Delaney activates crying mode, but the performance is unconvincing. Delaney thinks she's a better actress than she is. Though she did manage to fool a lot of people for a long time.

Maybe now Liam will finally see her for who she really is.

At least he's going to Yale without her. That was the whole point. To save him from her clutches. And now five people are dead. My mind races back and forth. I did the right thing. I did the wrong thing. I'm a murderer, by proxy.

Again.

Accidental Chemistry.

Delaney planned it all. That candle, the cards. Playing with us like rats in a maze. I harden my glare, and she smirks.

"How are you feeling?" I say. It's my turn to be smug. Delaney's confidence flickers.

"Fine," she says through gritted teeth.

"Really? It should have kicked in by now." I milk the moment. Even Liam turns, perplexed, to stare at me.

I pull the vial from my pocket with a flourish. Liam's pocket, actually. I'm still wearing his hoodie. Bless him for always being prepared. I found the perfect weapon when I snaked my hand inside the kangaroo pouch hours ago.

Delaney's eyes bug out. "Visine?" Her mouth drops into a surprised O. "The coffee."

"Just the way you like it."

Liam grabs my arm, and it's the first time all day he's touched me. My heart picks up speed. "Willa, that shit's really serious. It could kill her. How much did you use?"

"I don't know." My voice wavers uncertainly. I thought he'd be proud of me for being so clever. "A few drops in each drink?"

His eyes flick with some worry over at the stairs. "If Piper can get the internet up, if we can message for help, maybe we can get her to the hospital in time—"

"Wh-what?" I stammer, then steel myself. "She killed five people, Liam!" I hate my shrill little-girl tone, the way I can't keep panic and desperation out of the push of my words. I need Liam on my side.

I need him to choose me, not her.

"I only gave her enough to weaken her," I hedge, "so we have a chance in hell at survival. Unless you want me to finish her off now."

"I'm right here. Tied up," Delaney pipes in. There's a quaver to her tone. She's not feeling well. Good. But then she narrows her eyes, straight at me. "Wait, how did you know you needed to—" Then they widen. "You bitch."

I see the pieces come together for her.

"How did you even know? You weren't there. You—"

"Me," I say, and it comes out like a growl. "I overheard Eden at the homecoming dance telling Camille about that time Delaney went off on a psycho rant about poor people at Declan's party. She bragged about having it on video, and then left her phone on the table. I sent myself a copy of the video while you guys tore up the dance floor. The rest was easy."

Delaney's eyes glint triumphantly. "You see this?" She means Liam. His gaze pinballs between us. "This is who Willa really is. She's not a good person."

"You're literally a murderer," I shoot back. But it gives Delaney the perfect opening.

"So are you."

Popcorn, salt, and smoke. An experiment. And a chemical reaction. It was an accident I never could have predicted, and yet it happened. I gave Noah my phone at the party, showed him that stupid life-hack video. I didn't know how dangerous it was.

When the aluminum soda can exploded in Noah's face, I wonder if I popped into his mind. If he blamed me. What was his last thought before he died?

Delaney was the only person I told. It was a moment of weakness, word vomit, the confession tumbling out despite my brain shouting not to tell her, not Delaney, of all people.

I've dreaded this day for three years.

"Willa, don't you have something to tell Liam?" Delaney's voice is deadly sweet.

I finger my black tourmaline again, beg and beg and beg for help. Please don't make me say it, please don't make me say it to him. Please—

"Willa?"

Liam's voice has never been so hard. Guarded, and unsure.

"It—it was an accident" is all I can stutter out. "I wanted to tell you, so many times. Liam, I'm so sorry."

Delaney moans with impatience. "Jesus Christ, get to the point. She killed Noah, Liam."

Liam flinches at the name, an old wound freshly dug up. He won't meet my eyes—no, he's still caught in Delaney's spell. Her black magic at work again. Bile rises up my throat as she makes her case.

" I didn't kill anyone innocent. Declan, Eden, Wyatt, Cam—they were bad people. Liars, cheaters, backstabbers, and predators. Willa killed a kid. Your cousin. Then she slept with you, knowing what she did. And got me rescinded from Yale, to keep you all to herself. You know what she deserves."

There's a moment where Liam doesn't react, or move an inch. He's thinking. Is he actually considering Delaney's argument? To finish me off and…what? Ride off into the sunset with her?

"What about Piper?" he asks, voice dangerously low.

"We'll leave, like we planned," Delaney makes doe eyes at Liam. "We'll cut the power, snowshoe down the mountain, and leave Piper to her fate. It is what it is."

Again Liam says nothing. A worrying, terrifying kind of nothing. It fills the room, crackles in my mind like static. I have to do something. This can't be happening.

"I have the video," I blurt. "You should watch it, Liam. Know who she is. Why I had to save you from her." I grab for my phone on the coffee table, pray it has a charge.

It doesn't turn on.

"Shit," I hiss under my breath as panic laps at my insides. No! He needs to see. It's my only hope….

"You said Eden had it on her phone, right?"

Piper appears at the top of the basement stairs, holding an object aloft.

"Her phone's dead too," Delaney snaps, then course-corrects. "Not like it matters. Liam, the video is nothing. It doesn't change what Willa did."

Delaney's so hyperfocused on me, she doesn't comprehend what I have. Piper's been listening long enough to know that the plan is to kill us both. She's my last chance, last hope, to get Liam on my side and save our lives.

"I was able to charge it while I reset the Wi-Fi. Always prepared, right, Liam?"

There's a small portable charger in Piper's fist, still attached to Eden's phone.

She taps in Eden's passcode, then hands it to me. I know exactly what to do. Nestled at the bottom of Eden's camera roll, thumbnail frozen with Delaney's pretty face twisted in a snarl, is the video that turned my stomach the first time I saw it. Then lit up my imagination.

I know I'm not a good person.

But Delaney is worse.

I hit play and hold the phone up for everyone to see.