“Finally put it all together, did you?” Melanie’s voice glided through the near-empty hallway like a snake’s hiss, her words dripping with amusement. Her eyes glittered under the dull, sterile lights, eyeing me as though she were savoring a joke I wasn’t in on.
The world around me felt like it had tilted. For a minute, I struggled to find my equilibrium, the floor suddenly feeling too solid, too hard beneath my feet.
My head swirled, reeling from the shock of seeing that arrogant grin on her face.
“What are you talking about?” I managed, striving to keep my voice steady, but it still came out too tight, too trembling.
Part of me was begging for this to be some kind of horrible mistake. Surely, she didn’t mean what I believed she did. This was Melanie. My pal. The one person who’d know
