Page 129 of Ly to Me

I wanted to stab those wandering eyes of his right from their sockets.

“You have no right to come here. When Carver hears—”

“Hears…what? You screamin’ for me?”

I swallowed, my heels bumping into the bottom step of the dinghy front porch.

“Get out of here. He’s going to be here any minute now. Last time you tried to fight him, you lost. So, go on, before he beats the hell out of you again.”

Noah chuckled. “He’s not comin’. You really thought he’d go somewhere, leave his family behind, for the likes of you?”

My neck burned hot, anger boiling up inside, trying to fight the panic those ideas sent my heart into. “You’re lying.”

“I’m not. How do you think I found out where you lived?”

Anyone could have told him I lived in this hellhole. It wasn't exactly a secret.

“Carver wouldn’t send you here. He’d tell me himselfifthat were true. Which it isn’t.”

“You were nothing but a bet, Lyra. The girl he chased after to win a grand from me.”

A bet?No. Couldn’t be.

“He wouldn’t need your money. He has his own.”

Noah laughed. “Yeah, okay. Tell him that.”

My arms shook as I pointed to the end of the dirt road. “Quit lyin’. Leave. Now. Go on.”

His arms shot up beside his head. “Not lying. Why don’t you ask him if he ends up comin’? Ask him how he showed us all your blood-stained panties just to prove that he followed through and fucked you before prom like he was supposed to.”

Tears stung my eyes without reason. Noah was a liar. There was no way—

“He showed everyone. Told everyone how tight you were. How loud you were in his truck that night after the party. Even told us when we could start trying to have our turn with you—right after graduation.”

Fear crept into my bones as my back met the wall. “I don’t believe you!” I shouted, my hand searching for the front doorknob.

He shrugged. “Well, so be it. Don’t believe me. Go on and leave with him and see how quickly he leaves you to come right on back.” Noah spit in my yard before turning on his heels. As he entered his truck and started the engine up again, his window rolled down, revealing a grinning, lying man. That's all he could be—right? “I’ll be back when you realize he ain’t comin’ for you. Maybe you’d like to take a ride on the wild side.” He winked, then fishtailed his truck from my drive, the sand creating a storm around me that made it difficult to breathe.

I ran back to my room and dug through my drawers, searching for proof that Noah’s claims were all lies. But those panties were long gone, just like my virginity went—right before prom. In the truck Noah mentioned, on that same night he knew about, too.

My knees hit the floor with a soft thud as my shoulders curved inward.

And I let it all out.

Tears rolled down my cheeks, dripping onto the wood in a steady rhythm as my heart shattered to pieces.

How could I have been so stupid to think Carver would actually…that he could—

“No one will ever love you, pretty girl.”

I startled, falling back to the floor as the voice seeped under my skin. Whimpering, I inched back, using the heels of my feet and palms to push me.

“Where do you think you’re goin’?” Chet eyed my duffle, his drunken stupor making his movements slow but my body was too paralyzed by heartbreak to act. To use that to my advantage. To run.

“I said, ‘where thefuckdo you think you’re going?’”

No words formed past my trembling lips as my head hit the base of my bed.