Silent Scars

CHAPTER 67

MARCO MARCHESI

The tires screeched against the pavement as Marco’s car jolted to a halt in front of the school. He didn’t even bother closing the door behind him.

Sirens wailed in the distance, slicing through the silence like a blade. The police were coming.

Of course they were.

He walked fast, almost ran, heart hammering not from panic, but anticipation.

The kind that came right before a storm.

The building loomed, still and untouched. From the outside, it looked like any other school on a regular day. Peaceful. But Marco knew better.

Inside was a different world entirely.

As he shoved the entrance doors open, the shift hit him like a wave.

Stillness.

Not peace. Not order.

A thick, suffocating stillness.

Students were frozen in the hallways, some huddled in corners, others standing in place like mannequins. Faces pale. Eyes wide. The kind of fear you don’t fake.

Teachers weren’t any better, murmuring frantically into phones, whispering to each other in rushed, terrified tones.

One teacher looked like she was about to cry. Another was pacing, whispering “He was here. He was just here.”

A muffled sob caught his attention.

He turned to find a girl near a locker, knees drawn to her chest, crying as though the floor beneath her had given way.

Marco’s gaze narrowed.

Hannah.

Even from where he stood, Marco could feel the weight of what Domain must have done to her.

Not physically, no. That wasn’t his way.

Domain could destroy a person without lifting a finger.

She was alive.

For a second, Marco felt relief.

Because if Domain had truly let himself go really gone over the edge, there might not have been anything left of her to find.

But Hannah was whole, if only physically.

Her hair was a mess, her face streaked with tears and mascara.

She was shaking, whispering over and over, like a broken record:

“I didn’t know....I didn’t know she was his....oh God, I didn’t mean to.....”

Marco didn’t move toward her. Didn’t speak.

He simply watched her. Let her tremble. Let her regret.

Because she knew.

Maybe not who Ariana really was. But she knew what she was doing when she pushed her. When she bullied her. When she tore her down in front of everyone.

And now she was sobbing on the floor like she was the victim.

Marco turned away before the disgust in his chest became action.

He scanned the hallway.

No Domain.

Which could only mean one thing.

Marco turned sharply and headed straight to the principal’s office.

He pushed them open with one hard shove and the scene inside hit him like a gut punch.