Chapter 85

Nathaniel

The jail cell is cold and unforgiving. I sit on the narrow bench, staring at the cracked concrete floor beneath my feet. The air smells of sweat and stale cigarettes, and the distant sound of a guard’s boots is heard through the corridors. I close my eyes, trying to block it all out, but I can’t. It's getting bad. Whoever framed me for this is getting too close for my own comfort. My mind is a storm of thoughts, each one darker than the last. Why is it that Megra and I have to fight this hard?

Anna’s face flashes before me, her expression unreadable. I still don’t understand why she would turn on me like this, why she’d feed the papers the story of an adulterer when she knows damn well she was the one who ran a game on me from the start. She’s the one who manipulated me, who set this whole thing in motion. And now, here I am, the one being dragged through the mud, the one being crucified in the court of public opinion. How quickly people turn on you, how fast they forget who