Secret Sniper

Chapter Thirteen

CHAPTER THIRTEEN

"You're lying," Michael says, breaking the silence, pulling me out of my thoughts.

"I'm-"

"YOU'RE LYING!" Michael exclaims, interrupting Callie and slamming his fist down on the table. He sounds like he's losing it. I don't even think it's because he doesn't want to believe that Adriana's dead; I think it's because he's releasing all the anger he's built up about Callie leaving him years ago. I can't handle the fact that Adriana is dead by just standing still, so I pace around the room. My eyes start to burn and I can feel tears start to well up in my eyes as I walk and I try to blink them back but there's no use. I cry. I just let the tears run down my face because I have to accept that I have lost the only love of my life.

"Prove that I'm lying! You haven't heard from Adriana since you were on the plane so how could you possibly know how she's doing or if she's even ALIVE?" Callie exclaims.

"I can see it in your face! You've always lied to me!" Michael shouts back. "Always have, always will.." I can hear his voice starting to wobble. He clears his throat. "Tell us the truth Callie. What have you done with Adriana," he interrogates, again making his question sound more like a statement.

"She's. Dead. Get it through your head," she says in a lower tone. "You never really could wrap your head around things, can you Michael? The same way you could never wrap your head around the fact that you weren't intelligent enough to know how to treat or even love a real girl, like me."

"Oh, a real girl?? Says the one who dressed up as a ^fake^ FBI agent!!" Michael shouts.

"I did what I had to do to complete the task!" Callie shouts back.

From there, they get into a huge argument about who loved who and all that messy relationship business that happened years ago. Their shouting is giving me a headache, but that pain is nothing compared to the amount that I have in my heart at this moment. I feel like I'm dead, like I just died, like I'm a ghost. A part of me is missing: the other half of me. All that I loved and cared for is gone. She's ^gone^. I just.. I just can't accept that. All the years that we've known each other, all the years that we've grown with each other, all the years we have loved each other, there will be no future for that now. It's bad enough that she's dead, but it's even worse that when I saw her last, I treated it as if I was really going to see her again. In my head, I told myself that I might not see her again, but heart continually told me that I would be alive to come home and see her again.

That was my issue: I thought it was ME who was going to be fighting for MY life, but it turned out to be her. She wasn't even prepared for it. I should've known that a mission like this that was so close to family would've been much more dangerous than any regular mission. I should've been more cautious and thought about real preparations before I left. I should've done more to ensure that she was going to be properly protected before I left. I should've cherished that time I last had with her more. Just thinking about our last moments together and how our emotions connected more deeply than ever before makes my heart pound with agony. Now all I have is regret. Regret that I didn't do all the things I should've done to protect her, all the things I didn't say when I had the chance to tell her how much I love her. I can't do that anymore because she's-

I kick something, which rips me from my miserable thoughts. I stop pacing and pick it up. I brush off the dust and almost faint after realizing what it contains.