Page 58 of Mr. North

“I was driving, Paxton. I was the one who got behind the wheel. How could…you do that?” Thalia is as white a sheet now, just like Paxton.

“I didn’t care who was driving,” Paxton says tiredly. “I didn’t care that I was in the car. What the fuck did it matter? I wanted to die. I wanted Raphael to die for being so fucking heartless. I wanted Chloe to die for taking something that belonged to me. And I wanted you to die for being so…so fucking blind for so many years, Thalia. It was fucking pathetic. You were pathetic, just like you’re being pathetic now.”

So that’s it, then. He wasn’t simply willing to risk being hurt by being in the car. He wanted to be hurt. More than that: he wanted to die, and he wanted to take his friends with him.

“I realized how crazy I’d been afterwards, when Chloe was gone and Raph was locked up, but in a weird way it seemed like justice. She didn’t deserve to have him, Thalia. She wasn’t one of us. Not really. She wasn’t from the same stock. Her family was broke . And two years trapped inside his apartment, to think about what he’d done? Raphael earned that penance. When I visited him, it made me feel better. I saw him change. I thought eventually he’d realize we were meant to be together in the end. He shut you out. He wouldn’t even let you come to the penthouse. He never believed you were responsible for Chloe’s death, he always said it was an accident, but looking at you reminded him every day of what happened. I became the one he leaned on. I became the one he turned to when he was upset or hurting. I knew if only he stayed inside his penthouse and didn’t fucking come out, one day he would open his eyes and see what was right there in front of him. And then you showed up and ruined everything,” he says, stabbing a finger into my chest. “I thought you’d take the money. You didn’t. I filmed you and released the footage to the press. I thought you’d run for the hills. You didn’t. You’re a bad penny, Elizabeth Dreymon. You just keep showing up. I won’t have it anymore. I won’t—”

A scream, then.

A scream that cuts him off, high pitched and blood curdling. It renders Paxton instantly speechless.

On the balcony, outside, a discarded cigarette burns down to the filter on the ledge.