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Chapter XXXV

Chapter 35

L i n d a.

"All along... ?"

She doesn't respond. She simply smiles, bigger and brighter than I've ever seen her before. What happened to the girl I meant? Was it all really just an act?

"Honestly, you should have seen this coming."

I shake my head. Never in a million years would I have imagined it to be her, and my mind doesn't seem to want to accept the fact that it's true, yet my eyes tell another story- a twisted and sinister one.

"Why...why are you doing this?" I can hear the tremble in my voice as I mentally kick myself for it, and I bet she can too.

She closes the door behind her and walks towards me. Circling me as if I were her pray. Which now I am.

"Don't act like you don't know," She replies stopping in front of me and leaning in closer "Because I do." She steps back, putting distance between us, then grabs a folded chair, something I didn't notice before, and sets it in front of mine- all while keeping her eyes on me.

I try to move, yet the ropes seem to be digging more into my already bloody bruised skin. But that doesn't stop me from wiggling my hands and trying to pull on them even more.

"From the beginning I had my suspicions of you, but I choose to ignore it thinking my mind was playing treats on me. Guess I was right all along. Right Linda?" she asks tilting her head to the side.

I don't respond I can only stare at her. Looking into those features which looked friendly back then, but now, it only seems as if the devil is staring back at me instead of her. 

"Did you know that you and Zoe were the reason why I lost everything. He cared for me first until you both showed up, causing him to forget about me." Her hands tighten to fists as her eyes darken.

"Do you know how loved I felt when I meet him. He gave and showed me that when my parents didn't, just like yours correct?" My heart tugs at the mention of my parents. "I know what happened, but at least yours had a reason whereas mine didn't, they just left. Leaving their only fucking daughter alone."

"You know why my parents left?" I blurt out, my heart is racing faster than ever and my hands are beginning to shake. The possibilities are endless, and now more fear seems to spike in me at the thought of her knowing or potentially being behind there reasons.

Eva nods and I catch a glimpse of sadness etched into her eyes before it disappears. 

"You'll soon find out, but not by me" she responds, her fingers reaching over to graze my cheek immediately causing me to flinch. "Or maybe you won't."

"But that's not why I brought you here," she continues. Pulling her hand back, only to pull something out from beneath her hoodie.  A gun. "Maybe I should have done this years ago."

My heart is fighting to break out of my rib-cage while my breathing quickens.

"Why are you doing this?" I ask again, feeling the tears in the back of my eyes, but I refuse to cry. Not in front of her "What did I ever do to you?" 

Her grip on the gun tightens.

"Do you how long I've been waiting for him to notice me? To be with me and when he finally did. I knew I didn't want to let that feeling go, but then Zoe showed up causing him to leave me and go after her. Do you know how it felt to lose another person and see them walk away?"

For the first time in my time of knowing Zoe I wanted to defend her. State that it wasn't her fault, but Eva doesn't wait for my response as she continues. "I had everything planned to make her life miserable, but you showed up, and I know it was you I had to worry about not Zoe and I was right. Because the next thing I knew he broke up with her to go out with you." Eva gets up all of a sudden knocking the chair over in the process and starts to pace the room.

"But he wasn't perfect as he made everyone believe" She shakes her head "Nope because he still cheated on Zoe with you and me. He cheated on you with me too in the beginning. So I guess we are both the same." she says muttering the last part.

"I tried to keep my distance- trying to get over it but I couldn't. So one night I went to his apartment dressed like you-"

"Witnesses are saying they heard arguing and someone running out who looked like you..."

"It...it was you? You killed Jacob," 

She stops and turns to face me, her face pale- surely matching mine and her hand still clutching the gun if not tighter.

"It was an accident! I never meant to hurt him. When he opened his door he looked surprised and told me to get out because you were on your way. I lost it there. We argued until I couldn't take it anymore. I grabbed a knife off the counter but that wasn't for him. It was never for him..." she pauses as if she were back at his apartment.

"It happened so fast. We were fighting over the knife and...I felt something. In seconds he was on the ground with the knife in..."

My tears are flowing like a river down my cheeks. "Did you found my necklace and put it there?" I ask, unable to keep my voice from shaking.

She shakes her head "No, I believe he had that with him." 

"You made everyone believe I did it though." My mouth dry at this point.

"I honestly didn't plan that, but it's a good thing it turned out the way it did. I got rid of you. Besides, now you know how it feels to have someone taken away from you. Now I have to take care of Zoe-"

"That's why?" I interrupt "that's why you said all those things about Zoe to stay away from her you wanted me to believe she was the one that killed Jacob."

"Honey, almost everything I said was true. She was like that, and her actions made everything be in my favor. It wasn't hard to convince you that she could have killed him. I'm shooting two birds at once right now but don't worry. I'll make sure Zoe gets what she deserves because once I'm done with you, she will be the one to get the blame. Then I'll have Derek to myself. As it should be."

"You never talked to him- you never-"

 "Shut it! It doesn't matter!" My lip bleeds more as I slowly turn to look back at her. "I'm done letting people walk over me and think of me as an outcast. After today I'll be by his side and comfort him. I'll make him happy."

Eva suddenly lifts the gun, pointing it at me "Smile Linda. I'm doing you a favor. You missed Jacob so much didn't you. Well, you're about to see him again." Her features soften at the mention of his name. "Tell him I'm sorry, and that I love and miss him but I also hate him. If things turned out different none of this would have happened. We wouldn't be here." Shake shakes her head and a single tear appears. "Goodbye, Linda."

My hands finally break free, along with a sound of a bullet firing and a door thrown open.