Shattered(18)

Trystan's heart slams into his chest, thumping harder and faster. His breathing becomes jagged as his body tenses.

They know.

It's at that moment that Brie sees him. She flicks her eyes in his direction and hustles down the hall, sashaying in her tiny skirt. The swarm of people follow in her wake. Trystan's frozen in place. He considers running, but he can't because there's no way to hide from this. Dread chokes him, rendering him silent. The confident smile that usually lines his lips is long gone.

Brie steps into the space between Trystan and Mari and wraps herself around his arm. "This is Trystan Scott," she says beaming. He can feel her hand on his arm and hear her voice, but it sounds like static in his ears. She pulls him closer to the crowd, either that or they form a circle around him, surrounding him.

Trystan breathes hard, his eyes darting between the excited faces and the cameras. There's more than one. Trystan's heart lurches when he realizes that he's been cornered. He reaches for Mari's hand, but she's gone. He can't even see her face. The crowd has swallowed him and she's gone.

Dread creeps around Trystan's throat like a noose, pulling tighter and tighter. These people know his secret. He can feel the icy cold truth racing through his veins. That means they know about the other night, about how his dad strangled him. Everything he's been trying to hide for so long is about to be exposed.

There's no way to stop it.

A voice cuts through the noise, through the chaos of his thoughts. The woman in the suit holds out the microphone to him, asking, "Are you Day Jones?"