Chloe (Made Men, #3)(13)

It was as if Elle could read her thoughts.

“What everyone is saying happened to you isn’t real. The car wreck wasn’t real. No one knows what really happened to you, but now you can tell someone you can trust.”

Chloe knew, if she were going to ever tell anyone, it would be Elle. She believed her when she had said she would never tell, and they did relate to each other in many ways. She’d had no clue of the extent of Elle’s suffering, and she was glad she had told her everything.

Chloe wanted to tell her, but she was afraid to, because once she said it out loud, she couldn’t take it back. Once the words were spoken… Then it is real.

“What really happened to you, Chloe?”

Taking a deep breath, she mustered up enough courage to unzip the thin jacket she had worn to bed. Slowly, she removed the jacket and revealed the various scars that marked her arms. This was the first time she had revealed the fact that she wasn’t just marked on her face.

Elle covered her mouth in shock, having no clue Chloe had been hiding further injuries.

Wiping away the tears on her face, Chloe rested the back of her head on the wall. Then she looked up at the white ceiling, her nightmare starting to play from the beginning.

“T-The day you got beaten up was the n-night … I got my scars.”





Twelve





The Murder of Elle Buchanan





The crazy events of the weekend had come and gone, just like their last week of school. Sitting in science class, the final class of the semester, they turned in the project they had finished at Elle’s.

Chloe had an emotional breakdown that night after she had awoken from her nightmare and become vulnerable enough to reveal her dark secrets. She had ended up telling Elle everything that had happened to her that horrible night. She had also told her about her parents and what it was like for her at home. Thankfully, Chloe didn’t regret it. She and Elle were in the same boat of secrets and had nowhere to turn except each other.

She’s the only one I will ever tell.

Chloe looked up to Elle. She was strong, whereas Chloe was not. She didn’t show her fear to the world, whereas she did. Therefore, she found herself depending on Elle to survive this hell and to keep her sanity. At this point in her life, at its lowest, the most important thing to her was their friendship.

Brrring.

Quickly, all the students ran out of the classroom, eager for Christmas break. Even the teachers were scurrying to leave.

Elle and Chloe continued to stay put, waiting for the hallways to clear. They were being extra careful because, now being two, their target was bigger.

“You’re going to come and spend the night at my house during the break, right?” Elle asked.

Um …

Laughing, Elle could see what she was thinking. “Next time, we can stay up all night, watching movies. We will just pull all-nighters, so no need to sleep.”

Chloe’s lips turned up into a smile. “Okay, deal.”

“I think it should be good now.”

They both stood, gathering their things, and ventured out into the hall. Chloe followed a step behind her, and even though the hallways were pretty much cleared out, she still kept her head toward the ground. The science class was in the back of the school, so they had a good distance to go, and Chloe didn’t want to take the chance of someone mocking her face on the way out for the last time.

They were getting closer to the front of the school and only had one turn left to get out of the halls. When Elle took the sharp turn first, Chloe heard the massive whack that sent Elle flying back to her butt.

As she held her nose, the blood started to trickle down her hand and face.

Chloe felt every muscle in her body freeze as she looked at the twisted expression on Sebastian’s face with a big biology book in his hands. Her mouth dropped open to scream, but a cold hand appeared over her lips, keeping her silenced.

The devil’s voice whispered in her ear, “Stay still, little girl.”

Chills ran up her spine as she waited for her turn from Sebastian’s wrath. She knew she should move, run, or help. She could feel something deep down inside of her screaming at her to do just that. However, it was as if the devil’s hands were holding her still. She could feel them gripping her wrists.

“You need to f*cking keep your eyes to yourself, bitch.”

Elle’s shirt was getting stained redder and redder by the second.

“I wasn’t going to say anything. I don’t care what you do.”

“What the f*ck did you just say to me? You don’t care what I do?” Sebastian went to smash the book over Elle, but she covered her head just in time.

The book smashed into her forearm hard enough to hear a small crack.

“Keep your f*cking mouth shut, both of you.” He looked at Chloe and raised the book again.

The invisible hands cuffed her wrists more securely, causing tears to brim her eyes.

“Or it’ll just hurt worse.”

Elle grabbed Sebastian’s leg. “No …!”

“Don’t you tell me no.” Sebastian reared the book back toward Elle again, giving her barely enough time to cover her head. He connected the book to the same arm, but this time, the cracking sound was much louder, solidifying a break in the arm.

A smug look crossed his face as he left.