CHAPTER 39
Riven
I'm Tired - Labrinth ft. Zendaya
Ipush Charlie's loft door open, covered in Liam's blood, my throat aches beneath the bruises he left behind.
I don't know when I started walking, I don't know how the hell I ended up here.
Maybe after the medics arrived, after the emergency drones unfolded into humanoid robots, after they loaded Liam onto a stretcher and told me to step back.
I answered their questions in an almost empty voice.
I told them someone had broken in and cut off Liam's hand after he tried to strangle me, that Liam had been tipsy.
That was it.
With my family name, they didn't question me, they simply took my statement and wheeled him away.
I think I was already walking out before they even finished saying,
‘Don’t worry Miss Laordie, we will take care of him. Maybe you should get that neck checked’.
They tried to stop me, telling me they could call someone, even my father. I told them no, there was no fucking way they were calling my father.
He would've hung up anyway, not caring an ounce.
I didn't get it checked.
I just needed to get out of my own home, so I walked.
Without thinking, without even knowing where I was going until I ended up here.
And I didn’t even think of taking my comm.
Idiot.
Earlier, before I left with Liam, Charlie was at Jules’.
I look around, her loft is different from mine or Jules’.
It’s more cyber, more in our time, but she still keeps it real.
Charlie's loft is darker than mine. Concrete, black steel, purple neon, candles burning where no one else would think to put them.
Somehow, she always makes cold spaces feel lived in.
Exactly how Charlie lives and likes it, dark with feminine hints here and here.
I'm alone right now.
I sigh and rub my face in pure frustration.
I need to see them, I need my girls.
I walk over to Charlie's desk, where all of her Smart Panels are still set up for gaming.
I log in—she never puts passwords on any of her stuff.
That's actually insane.
I send a message on her comm, telling her I'm at her place and that I need them.
I don't know how much time passes, I don't think I move a muscle, I don't even think I blinked.
I just stare at the damn screen for God knows how long.
Every breath hurts, every swallow burns.
Liam really fucked me up and I don't know what to think about Evren.
I don't want to think about him at all.
I need my life back, I need to go back to work, to tell Charlie and Jules the truth, to get the fuck out of this mess Elyas—and my own idiotic brain—dragged me into in the first place.
I don't even know how Elyas is, with everything that's happened, I haven't even checked on him.
Am I a bad friend? Am I just fucking overwhelmed?
I wish I had a normal life, parents who actually loved me, a brother I hadn't killed.
No stupid rebellious teenage years, no obscene amount of money, no Liam nor him.
Definitely not him.
The pad beeps, a second later, the front door slides open then shuts behind whoever just walked in.
“Oh my God Riv!” Charlie’s voice resonates in her loft and I hear her footsteps running toward me.
I might be in shock because when she turns my chair to face her and cups my cheeks, it all feels so distant, so... I'm not really here.
Jules is a second behind her, running her hands over me, searching for the source of the blood, trying to see if it’s mine.
It’s not.
I open my mouth to say something, to tell them that much, but no sound comes out.
I hear their voices asking me questions, then shouting my name, but it’s as if they’re trapped behind a thick pane of glass, every word reaching me is dulled and muffled.
My head snaps to the side.
My hand flies up to the sting, to the warmth blooming across my cheek—Jules just slapped me.
I turn back to her slowly.
She’s breathing hard, her hand still suspended in the air. Charlie has both hands clamped over her mouth, probably trying to hide how shocked she is.
I don’t blame Jules, she dragged me out of that muffled world, but now that I’m back, it means I have to fucking speak.
I have to explain everything, to tell them the truth.
“Jules…” I start, my voice barely above a whisper. “Charlie…”
“What the fuck happened, Riven? Where did all that blood come from?” Jules asks, her voice breaking. “You left with Liam earlier. What the hell happened?”
“And what are those bruises around your throat?” Charlie asks, her voice quieter, but no less horrified.
“I…” I take a deep breath “The blood isn’t mine, it’s Liam…”
I see their eyes widen in worry, and horrified understanding.
But before they can ask another question, I start talking.
“Liam is at a private clinic, getting his hand treated.”
“His hand? What are you talking about?” Charlie frowns. “And those bruises—what happened, Riven?”
I let out a shaky breath, my voice trembling with the effort of holding myself together.
“When we got home, Liam just... stopped listening. I don’t know what happened.
I tried to talk to him, but he got angry.
So angry. His eyes were so dark...” I pause.
“He wanted to have sex. I said no, and he started strangling me, telling me he’d never let me go.
That I’m his, that he’d go crazy, lose his mind, if he ever lost me... ”
They both take a step back, trembling, frozen in shock.
I tell them everything, about Evren, about how lost I feel. About how my relationship with Liam was never really with me, but with an idea of who he wanted me to be.
Hours pass, maybe just an hour or maybe more. But I spoke the entire time, my voice growing hoarse, cracking with every word as my bruised throat protests, but I never stop.
“Then Evren...” My voice catches.
I hate saying his name.
Charlie and Jules wait without interrupting.
“He..." I swallow against the pain in my throat. "He saved me.”
The words taste wrong, wrong because they're true, wrong because I wish they weren't.
“Then he beat Liam and almost cut his hand off. Told it was for even daring touching me... something like that.”
They are both on their knees, completely pale as death.
None of them are able to speak, to throw out a sarcastic comment, or even cry.
“So, yeah... I’m fucked.” I rub the back of my neck.
“Y-Yeah...” Charlie finally finds her voice. “I-I mean, that’s fucked up... but you... I mean, you told us about him—about Evren—before... before things got this out of control.”
“I know...” I whisper, lowering my head as tears well up in my eyes.
“You know what’s even more fucked up than that Evren?”
Jules finally speaks, her voice steadier than Charlie’s and laced with far more fury.
“It’s Liam—that sweet little Liam...” She gestures mockingly, putting on a sickly-sweet voice.
“That bastard hid his obsession, his jealousy, or whatever the fuck that was, then actually tried to kill you the second you took some space for yourself, tried to fucking talk to him about what was happening to you.”
I slowly lift my head, my eyes wide. I’ve never, never seen Jules like this.
I’ve seen her drunk, high, fresh out of a man’s bed, angry, laughing, crying, but this... this is different.
It’s like she’s consumed by vengeance, and not even because of Evren, even if he deserves it, but because of Liam.
“Yeah... I mean, I did come back wearing another man’s shirt—”
“So what?!” Jules cuts me off sharply. “That gives him a reason to kill you? Evren is insane. He’s unhinged and completely obsessed with you, from everything you’ve told us.”
She pauses.
“But at least he doesn’t hide it. Liam? He was all sweet, letting you go out and giving you space, but the second you actually needed that space, for real, he strangled you. For what? A T-shirt? That’s even more fucked up than Evren.”
“Yeah, because it was something none of us saw. It was buried beneath the surface,” Charlie adds. “He didn’t even stop when he saw you going limp, Riven...”
My eyes widen. I expected them to be angry at Liam, but not like this, not this deeply.
I open my mouth to say something.
“An accident can happen. I mean, someone can be drunk and take things a little too far, and not realize the force they put but he was tipsy. Not drunk. And he didn’t stop, Riven,” Jules says, sitting back down, waving a dismissive hand.
“He was clear-headed enough to know exactly what he was doing.”
The silence that follows is heavy, not because of her anger, but because of the weight of the truth.
She’s right.
I look down, I was just trying to excuse Liam’s actions, when Jules is right.
He wasn’t drunk, he was clear-headed enough to know exactly what he was doing.
He meant to kill me, he wanted to.
“And I’m actually glad Evren was there, or we’d be on our way to the Postmortem Unit right now.”
I flinch as if she’d struck me.
“I’m sorry...” I manage to say, my voice trembling.
“No! Riven, don’t apologize to us. Never!” Charlie scrambles over to me. “This is Evren’s fault and Liam’s, not yours.”
Charlie wraps her arms around me. I don’t hug her back, but I bury my face against her chest, my shoulders trembling with silent sobs.
Something inside me finally breaks, as she gently rocks me back and forth, I cry—really cry, sniffling and sobbing like a lost child.
I feel Jules join us, wrapping her arms around both of us.
I really needed them. My girls. They’re the only sane thing keeping me standing.