Chapter 6 6- Confusion Realities
Proximity wasn't my normal. I never had any boy stand so close to me as Julian was standing in that moment. Inches away. Face so close that I could smell his cologne, see the fading bruises on his face.
"Let— let me go." I mustered all the courage I could gather in that moment, and Julian found it amusing. The way his dark eyes lit up with twisted humor made me sink further in the chair.
The wood dug into my spine painfully, but I couldn't register it yet. Not when he was suffocating me with his presence.
"How can I, Bennet? How can I when you walked right into my den? Have you ever seen a predator let his prey go?" He asked me, standing like a wall in front of me.
"I am not your prey!" I snapped at him. Despite my voice trembling slightly, I managed to keep my voice from wavering.
"I am neither your prey nor is any of this a game, Julian! My best friend died. I woke up in a hospital with no memories of my past six months. I don't even remember mourning for her death! Stop treating everything like a fucking game when it's not!" My voice pitched up as I pushed him away by his chest, and he let out a chuckle, stepping back.
Shakily, I stood up from the chair, wanting to run away from there, from him. Snooping in his house was one of my worst decisions.
But it did bring me somewhere.
Reaching for the worn-out file, I held it in front of his face.
"Why do you have pictures of Rachel's murder site? And why— why do you have pictures from my accident? Did you— did you cause my accident?" I asked him, my voice shaking slightly, and I saw him looking at the file before shifting his gaze to me.
"If I did, you'd probably be resting with Rachel right now." He replied casually, taking the file from my hand, and his words made my heart skip a beat.
"Excuse me?"
"I don't leave my work incomplete, Bennet. If I wanted you dead, you'd be dead." The wolfish grin on his face made me nauseous. I took a step back when he suddenly started closing the distance between us.
"Stop playing with my brain!" I wanted to yell; I really did. But the voice that came out was merely a pathetic whisper, and he raised his eyebrows at me. "You killed Rachel. That girl never spoke badly about anyone ever. You killed her. You—"
"Did I?" He interrupted me, making me blink my eyes in confusion.
"What?"
"Did I kill her, Bennet?" He asked me, and I licked my lips, confusion fogging my mind.
"You confessed it yourself, Julian! You said you stabbed her five times! Five fucking times!" I snapped at him, and his dark eyes hardened slightly.
Then slowly, with deliberate eye contact, I saw him reaching past me. His hips brushed mine, sending electric shivers down my spine. I sucked in a breath when his body almost pressed mine, except that it didn't. And he pulled out an envelope from the drawer of his table and handed it to me.
"What is it?" I asked him, still bothered by his closeness, and he looked at me with a sardonic smile.
"Preliminary forensic report of Rachel's murder." He said. "Open it."
He ordered me quietly, and I took it from his hand, looking away from him.
Cause of Death: Fatal internal injury from a single stab wound to the abdomen.
My eyes narrowed at the report. Single stab wound?
But didn't he— didn't he stab her five times?
"This is the report that has been hidden from the media. This is the truth nobody knows. And it's the lie you've been fed ever since you woke up, Chloe Bennet."
My head reeled from reading the report, not once, not twice, not thrice, but uncountable times. One stab wound. One stab.
'She was murdered in cold blood. Stabbed five times.' Tracy had told me.
'Yes, I stabbed Rachel five times, Bennet. The sixth time won't be hard for me if you keep digging around.' Julian's voice echoed inside me from the evening of his arrest.
I immediately shook my head, glaring at him with helplessness and frustration.
"You're manipulating me!" I said, throwing the report on his face, and I saw his jaw clenching at my actions, but surprisingly, he didn't retaliate.
"You confessed to me yourself that you stabbed Rachel five times! You even threatened to do it for the sixth time if I didn't stop investigating!" My words amused him because he let out a dark chortle at my vulnerability.
"The report says one wound, Bennet," Julian said, his calloused finger wiping the stray tear from my eye, making me shiver at his burning touch. "You're saying five. Someone has to be lying, no?"
I swallowed the lump that formed in my throat as I looked at him in confusion.
"And if someone is lying, Bennet, who can be feeding it to you? Me? The cops? Or your own broken mind?"
"You look like you haven't slept in days," Sarah commented as soon as I walked over to my designated seat beside them.
I let out a sigh, rubbing my head as the pounding increased. Removing the pills from my bag, I swallowed two with water and placed my head down.
"Are you not getting enough sleep, Chloe?" Tracy asked me, and something inside me shifted. I immediately lifted my head and looked at her straight, startling her with my abruptness.
"Remember the day I came to the school after my accident?" I asked her softly but urgently, and she nodded her head, confused, urging me to continue.
"You told me Rachel was killed by getting stabbed five times, right?"
My question followed a genuinely confused look on her face. Her eyebrows furrowed in confusion as she looked at Sarah, who mirrored her expression.
"What are you talking about, Chloe? Rachel wasn't stabbed five times. She was killed by one single stab wound in her abdomen."
