Chapter 2

For a full minute, nothing. Then:

[No,] came the reply.

[Do you actually know Sebastian?]

[You think that photo is fake? He was senior class president at Kingsley Prep. He lives at...]

The message went on with his address. My scalp prickled.

I called the number. It rang once, and a man picked up.

"Don't tell Sebastian. Please."

The line went quiet when he heard my voice. Then he laughed, in a way that made my skin crawl.

"You've got a pretty voice, sweetheart. All right. I'll keep your secret."

Before I could relax, he added, "But doesn't that mean you have to take responsibility for me?"

That line sounded horribly familiar. "What?"

"Ever since you gave me mouth-to-mouth, I can't bear to kiss another woman. And you stole my first kiss."

I had bigger problems than his first kiss.

But his bargaining strategy was familiar because it was mine.

Yes, I'd hurt my hand saving someone. The real reason I went after Sebastian, though, was greed.

I liked his face and wanted his money. And I'd told myself, over and over, that he owed me for what I'd lost.

Except none of that held together if he wasn't the one I'd saved.

I'd lied to him, held a false debt over him, and made his life hell for a year.

Every time I forced him home at a certain hour, I could picture him wanting to kill me.

He didn't want my hands on him, so I'd wait until he was asleep—pin his wrists, straddle him in the dark, bite his throat until his breathing changed.

Eventually I got bolder, slipping my hands under his shirt in broad daylight, in front of his friends, daring any of them to say a word.

Without my supposed status as his savior, I'd probably be dead by now.

Julia sent over a dozen more messages staking her claim.

I didn't dare answer a single one. Then she called.

She and the others had moved from the café to a private club. I'd been there a few times; Sebastian's friends met clients there.

"Molly, what is this supposed to mean?" she demanded.

Behind her, glassware clinked and someone laughed too loudly.

I listened to the noise, trying to sound gracious while I still could. "Nothing. Have fun."

I hung up.

That laughter was still in my ear when another night in the same club came back to me.

If not for me, Julia and Sebastian might have been together already. Coming between them was one reason his friends hated me.

"That disgusting little leech won't let go of him," I'd once heard them say, right outside the back room. "She tore apart a good couple and made everyone miserable. I hope she gets what's coming to her."

I didn't think. I stormed in, grabbed Sebastian by the collar, and kissed him so hard his lips swelled while everyone shouted.

When I let go, his eyes were red from lack of air and his head fell back against the couch.

For one second his hand came up—not to shove me off. Then it dropped, and he stared at me without blinking. I was sure he hated me.

And that hadn't been the worst of it.

Whenever his friends upset me, I'd leave marks where his clothes couldn't hide them the next day. It shut them up.

Julia, Wendy, whoever—none of them mattered while I was his official girlfriend.

God, I really had been awful. And I hadn't even saved Sebastian.

I was done for.