Page 98 of Last Breath

It was a version that cut through Nella like the blade of whatever had marred Ariana’s flesh however long ago.

She was angry.

Murderous.

‘What did you do?’ Luca whispered to Nella as Ariana crossed the no man’s land between the two families and Nella could finally see what she had in her hands.

‘I wrote her a letter.’

‘Why does she have a pair of cowboy boots?’ Luca said.

‘I don’t kn—’

Ariana stopped in front of her. Nella could feel her rage coming off her skin like heat from a fire.

‘Your paralegal left her shoes in our room.’

‘Ariana, did you get my l—’

‘You win,’ she said, holding out a pair of boots.

‘What do you mean?’

She tilted her head. ‘We’re even now, Antonella.’

‘Even?’ Nella took the shoes, her heart racing.

‘Don’t pretend this is something it’s not,’ Ariana said, dropping her hand and walking away. ‘Oh’—she turned to look back, her tight ponytail falling to her shoulder blade—‘and burn in goddamn hell, Antonella Barbarani.’

Before Nella could snatch a breath, she was gone.

‘What in the name of ...’ Tom began.

Nella lifted the boots; they were heavier than she’d imagined. ‘These aren’t Daisy’s shoes,’ she said.

33

Nella

‘You did it,’ Max said, ‘you freaking did it – you actually are a bad ass. And I don’t use that term ever. You’re Law Girl – ugh, no, that’s terrible ... Attorney Angel, Prosecution Pussy, Court Cu—’

‘Max.’ Nella rubbed her temples; she could feel a migraine pressing like an irritated finger against a broken elevator button. The voices from inside the main office were getting louder through Max’s closed door. ‘This isn’t right.’

‘Yeah, true, women haven’t completely reclaimed that one, have we?’

‘I mean this.’ She pointed at the screen they were crowded around in Max’s Kill Room, watching the dash cam footage from Forrest’s car. A handful of memory cards had been stuffed into the toe of a left cowboy boot. The smell of Ariana’s perfume – strawberries and caramel, something expensive – lingered with the reminder of her last words.

Max raised an eyebrow. ‘You’re saying it’s not right for us to show the police evidence that Forrest is the one who poisoned the bottle of wine that killed a girl?’

‘I’m saying that Ariana did not have some Disney Princess revelation at midnight that her fiancé is a blood-sucking parasite and her father is ... well, Matteo. She must have a reason for giving us these memory cards.’

‘Maybe she’s not the villain you thought she was, or maybe Jett and I got through to her, at the church – you know, guilting her about how Grey and I saved her life.’

‘You’re not listening.’ Why was she the only one who saw the world as it was? Saw the skeletons and the shit smears and the green lights of the matrix? Why was she the only one who knew this wasn’t ending happily ever after for them?

That villains didn’t win.

At the end, girls like Nella Barbarani don’t win.