Chapter 45 Chapter 45
The silence in the gym was suffocating. I stared at Jace, trying to find a trace of the boy who had been my anchor, but his expression was like a locked vault.
"Jace, talk to me," I whispered. "Your brother just implied that everything—you, him, Zayelle—is some kind of lie. What happened the night she moved here?"
Jace took a step toward me, his shadow stretching long across the hardwood floor. He looked like Marvin for a second—the same sharp jaw, the same broad shoulders—but where Marvin was fire and rage, Jace was ice.
"Marvin is looking for someone to bleed with him, Cass," Jace said, his voice terrifyingly calm. "He’s obsessed with the idea that Zayelle is the key to something, and he’s using that to justify why he’s treating Jacinta like trash."
"But he called her Zayelle," I pressed, my heart hammering. "He’s your twin, Jace. You know him better than anyone. Why is he bullying me one day and calling out her name the next?"
Jace reached out then, his fingers grazing my arm. It was supposed to be a comfort, but it felt like a warning. "Because Marvin hates that Zayelle is in your house. He hates that your mom and her dad are together. He thinks she’s a virus, Cass. And he’s catching it."
Before I could ask what that meant, the gym doors swung open again. It wasn't Marvin this time.
It was Zayelle.
She wasn't the Beyoncé-clone from the hallway. She looked small, her designer jacket hanging off her shoulders, her eyes red-rimmed. She stopped when she saw us, her gaze landing on Jace with a look of pure, unadulterated fear.
"I need to talk to her," Zayelle said, her voice trembling as she looked at me. "Alone."
Jace didn't move. He stood his ground like a wall between us. "Now isn't the time, Zayelle. Go back to your new friends."
"They aren't my friends!" Zayelle snapped, a flash of the old fire returning. "They’re vultures, just like Lena said. They only want to know if what Jacinta screamed is true." She looked at me, her eyes pleading. "Cass, please. I didn't ask for any of this. I didn't ask Marvin to—"
"To what?" I stepped around Jace. "To fall for you? To obsess over you? Zayelle, my mom is basically living with your father. If you’re messing with the brother of the guy who bullies me every day, you’re going to blow up our entire lives."
Zayelle let out a sob, covering her mouth with her hand. "I’m not messing with him! He’s stalking me, Cass! Marvin... he’s been following me since the first night I moved in. He doesn't want me. He wants to use me to get to Jace."
I froze. I looked at Jace, but he wouldn't meet my eyes. He was staring at Zayelle with a cold, calculating intensity that made my blood run cold.
"Jace?" I whispered. "What is she talking about?"
"It’s a twin thing, Cass," Jace said, his voice devoid of emotion. "Marvin thinks I’m 'soft' because of you. He thinks if he can break Zayelle—the girl living in your house—he can prove that I can't protect anything."
"Is that all I am to you?" I asked, the realization hitting me like a physical blow. "A project to protect? A way to win a fight against your brother?"
Jace finally looked at me, and for a split second, the ice cracked. "No. But you need to understand that Marvin isn't just a bully. He's a detonator. And he just pulled the pin."
Suddenly, Lena burst into the gym, her phone in her hand, her face white. "Cass! Jace! You need to see this. Now."
She turned the screen around. It was a video from the parking lot, taken just moments ago.
Marvin was standing on top of Jace’s car, screaming at a crowd of students. But he wasn't talking about Zayelle anymore. He was holding up a stack of papers—files that looked like they came from the school’s office.
"You think Jace is the 'perfect' twin?" Marvin’s voice roared through the phone’s speakers. "You think he’s the hero? Ask him why we really moved schools last year. Ask him what he did to the girl at our old place!"
The video cut off as a teacher ran into the frame.
I looked at Jace. The boy who was always calm. The boy who was always nice to me while his twin was a monster.
He didn't look like a hero anymore. He looked like a man whose secrets had finally caught up to him.
"Cass," Jace started, reaching for me.
I backed away, bumping into Zayelle. For the first time, she and I were on the same side. Two girls caught in the middle of a war between two brothers who used the world as their battlefield.
"Don't," I said, my voice shaking. "Lena, let's go."
As we walked out, I didn't look back at the twins. I didn't look back at the girl who had stolen my peace. I just ran, the echoes of Marvin’s laughter and Jacinta’s screams following me into the cold Monday afternoon.