Sit. Stay. Obey.Chapter 2

The photos spread like a virus. By second period, everyone had seen them.

I found Hayes in the student lounge. I was hyperventilating, my mind a fractured kaleidoscope of panic and confusion.

"Hayes, please," I choked out. "Tell me this is a mistake. Tell me..."

"Don't say my name," he cut in. The warmth from last night—the heat of his body, the tenderness—was gone, replaced by a glacial hatred. "You don't deserve to speak it."

He stepped closer, looming over me. "If it wasn't for you—if your mother hadn't clawed her way into my father's house—Lily would still be here. Every time I look at you, I see the life she didn't get to live. Why do you get to breathe when she’s rotting in a box?"

He grabbed my chin, his fingers digging into my jaw with bruising force, forcing me to look at him.

"You’re the one who should be dead, Raine."

I stared into his eyes—eyes that, just hours ago, had looked at me with what I thought was love. I remembered his heavy breathing, the way he’d buried his face in my neck and whispered, Raine, I love you. I’ve got you.

Was it all a lie? A performance?

Tears spilled over, hot and humiliating, landing on his cold hand. He flinched, his grip loosening just a fraction.

"Hayes..." I whispered, grabbing the hem of his cashmere sweater like a lifeline. "Did you ever love me? Even a little?"

The silence that followed was suffocating. He studied me, dissecting my misery.

"No," he finally said. "Every second I touched you, I felt sick."

The air left my lungs. It was a long con. A meticulously crafted execution. I was the only one who had fallen.

"I see," I managed to say, my voice breaking. "I’m sorry."

He released me abruptly. I collapsed onto the floor, my legs giving out.

"Stop acting like a victim, Raine," he sneered, turning his back on me. "Your real punishment hasn't even started yet."

He walked away fast, almost as if he were running.

I wiped my face, sitting alone in the middle of the hallway. Do you hate me that much, Hayes?

I owed Lily a life. If I gave him mine, would that finally balance the ledger?