Annalise Starke had known her mother was going to die eventually; she just hadn't expected it to happen so soon.
At fifteen she had moved with her mother back to her home country of Australia with half a heart (metaphorically, of course) and her mo...
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Breck pushed open the front door and Jacks, Sylvie, Ryan, and I followed him inside.
The day had been long. It had certainly felt like I'd been there more than eight hours, as if every hour was twice as long.
"I'm gonna say it," Ryan warned. "I'm still gagged."
Ahead of us, Breck groaned. Sylvie and Jacks remained silent. I did, too. Even though it had happened to me, I never really knew what to say at this point. We'd been beating the dead horse all day, and the more we talked about it, the scarier it grew.
She had left me, in another state, at night. Is it crazy to think that I'm lucky to be alive?
I peeled off and headed to the kitchen while the rest of them went into the living room and collapsed on the various couches. I went straight for the fridge—God, I needed a Diet Coke.
There was a strange scent in the air...cigarettes?...it was faint, but it swam up my nostrils. I thought Dad only smoked cigars when he was celebrating? I wondered if it meant that he'd come to a decision about the situation.
I grabbed the soda from the fridge and popped the tab. As I shut it, the answering machine beeped, and I clicked it without thinking. "𝐇𝐢, 𝐃𝐚𝐫𝐥𝐢𝐧𝐠," Meredith's voice filled the air. I froze, can halfway to my lips. "𝐈 𝐠𝐮𝐞𝐬𝐬 𝐲𝐨𝐮'𝐫𝐞 𝐬𝐭𝐢𝐥𝐥 𝐚𝐭 𝐰𝐨𝐫𝐤." A pause, then, "𝐍𝐨, 𝐈 𝐤𝐧𝐨𝐰 𝐲𝐨𝐮 𝐚𝐫𝐞. 𝐈'𝐦 𝐣𝐮𝐬𝐭 𝐭𝐨𝐨 𝐦𝐮𝐜𝐡 𝐨𝐟 𝐚 𝐜𝐨𝐰𝐚𝐫𝐝 𝐭𝐨 𝐜𝐚𝐥𝐥 𝐲𝐨𝐮𝐫 𝐜𝐞𝐥𝐥."
My heartbeat started to pick up in my chest at the sound of her voice. Why was this happening? It wasn't that she was the one who decided to leave me behind, right?
"Annalise?" I heard someone call my name from the living room, but everything aside from her sounded so muffled and faraway, so I couldn't tell who it was.
I felt his arms around my waist before I heard him. "Teacup," Jacks hugged me from behind, breaking me from my trance. I leaned back into his chest, letting him ground me. "You okay? Sylvie called for you, but you didn't respond."
"Sorry," the word came out a whisper.
Slowly, I turned around in his embrace. His eyes skimmed my features, and his brows furrowed. "What happened? You look like you've seen a ghost."
