A Hurt So Sweet Volume Three (Elite of Eden Falls Prep 3)

None of us say a word, them being too scared to look at one another and me not wanting to give them a second of my time. Once I'm done, I smirk and leave the bathroom. As soon as the door closes behind me, I hear them going at it again, gossiping and spreading more rumors.

Let them fucking talk. I'll have my revenge.

I go back to my locker. The hallways are deathly quiet because the lessons have already begun. I stash my school bag in the locker and take out another bag, a weekend one that I've packed with my essentials in case things ever got too bad at the Oakes Estate and I needed to make a run for it.

Dex and I had discussed leaving together. We'd talked about leaving all of this behind. But I never should have trusted him. He was never looking out for me.

Now, my bottom lip wobbles as I think about leaving by myself. I'll be all alone, just like when I first got to Eden Falls. But Dex doesn't deserve better. He wanted to get rid of me. Why else would he send that private photo to Audra?

I hesitate before pulling out the stack of printed out papers from my locker. But it has to be done.

They're pages from Lily Anna's diary, all the vicious, dirty secrets written in her handwriting and revealing these people for who they truly are. They may be Firstborns, but they're really nothing but monsters. Monsters that killed Lily Anna first, and did their best to destroy me second.

As I began walking out of the school, I allow the cathartic moment to take over. I let the papers fall all over the hallway. Pages for every one of these people Lily Anna knew litter the floor. This is going to break them. These secrets will bring Eden Falls to its knees.

And I have no regrets left.

19

Dexter

It isn't until the day's second class that I find out about the photo.

Pandora, my sexy little toy, sprawled out in the most private moment, for everyone to see.

By then, it's too late.

The hallways are strewn with photocopied pages from Lily Anna's diary, and Pandora is long gone.

I corner Audra in the hallway outside the gym, towering over her as I cage her against the lockers.

"Dex," she manages breathily. "What do you-"

"Where did you get that photo?" I hiss. "I know it was you who did this. Don't even try to fucking deny it."

"You..." She bites her lower lip. "You don't fucking remember?"

"Tell me!" I punch the locker next to her and she cringes away.

"God, Dex! You texted it to me! Don't you remember? It was you, Dex!" With shaky fingers, she scrolls through her phone and shows me the text. And there it is, with my name as the sender. The photo of Pandora I took when I fucked her.

"I didn't send that," I mutter. "Impossible. Im-fucking-possible."

"Well, someone did," Audra rolls her eyes. "And who else could it be? You live alone, Dexter."

Except I don't.

And I suddenly know exactly who did this. The only person who's capable of this shit - the one who wants to punish me, whatever the cost.

She was capable of killing two innocent people in the name of her sick love.

She won't stop now.

Lily Anna will keep hurting me and the people I love until she gets her way.

I jog away, my hands forming fists as I race down the hallway and into my car. I screech out of the parking lot. I don't even give myself a moment to sift through the diary pages that have sent the school into a frenzy, because I'm too busy hunting down the girl who made this whole mess.

But with those pages being revealed... it means the end of our world, at least in some ways. It will show everyone none of these people are as special, as sacred, as fucking innocent as they've led everyone to believe. The diary makes us all seem... human.