shoes in the world--the first thing she would shed when she finally got out of here.) It used to be
that she would grab her own arm when she was tense, letting her fingernails cut into the flesh.
Then one day last year Dr. Meloni had noticed this habit and pointed it out to her like he was oh so
insightful. She hadn't done it since.
"Unacceptable," he repeated.
She looked him in the eye, her gaze unwavering. "Yes."
"You do realize you killed someone," Dr. Meloni said, in the tone
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kids use on the playground when they challenge other kids to stupid dares.
Ariana blinked, just barely betraying her internal flinch.
Thomas's blood. Thomas's blood. Thomas's blood. Just like that she saw it on her hands. Under her
fingernails. In her hair. She had made them chop it all off when she was waiting for trial and hadn't
let it grow past her chin since. All that blood...
No. She mentally wiped the blood away. Gone. Back to the present.
"Yes. I do realize I killed someone," Ariana said, in a tone she reserved for idiots.
What no one here seemed to understand, or cared to hear, was that she hadn't meant to do it.
Thomas Pearson had been the love of her life. He had been the only real thing she had ever
possessed. It wasn't her fault that Reed Brennan had swooped in out of nowhere and stolen him
away. It wasn't her fault that her best friend, Noelle Lange, had come up with the idea to kidnap
him and tie him up in the woods to teach him a lesson after he'd humiliated Reed. And it definitely
wasn't her fault that when she had gone back to show him how much she loved him, to show him
mercy and untie him and set him free, he had chosen to mock her instead of thank her. Chosen to
tear her down and act like her devotion to him was worth no more than the mud under his feet.
Chosen to push her and push her and push her until she snapped.
If only he'd stopped when she'd asked him to.
"So you took the life of one of your schoolmates, one of your friends, and yet you don't think you
deserve to be locked up for life," Dr. Meloni said facetiously.
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"It was one mistake," Ariana replied.
"A mistake," he challenged, ducking his chin.