Hi, y'all! I apologize for taking so long to update this. I finally got the motivation to write this chapter and get past the writer's block. I will be trying to update the rest of my stories over the next couple of weeks and will hopefully be able to update this once again soon! Thank you for reading and staying around, and I hope you enjoy!

Dimitri stood, glaring as he reached for his phone. "You shouldn't be here."

"Why not, detective?" Lissa said, innocence dripping in her voice. "I'm not allowed to visit my best friend?"

I could see Dimitri subtlety texting, and I looked Lissa in the eye, hell-bent on distracting her.

"Fuck you," I snarled. "You were never my best friend. You've been using me for years."

"Now, why would I do that?" Lissa said, walking closer.

Dimitri stepped forward immediately, shoving her back. "You're not coming near her. Law enforcement is already on the way to arrest you."

"I'll be gone before they even reach the building," Lissa said, her innocent act starting to drop.

"I have one question: why?" I whispered. "Why me? Why my family?"

Emotions warred in Lissa's eyes before they hardened. "Just think about it. Connect the dots. I'll be in touch."

She left the room just as quickly as she had come, and Dimitri swore.

"There's nobody close enough to get to her in time," he said. "I'm not leaving you, and regardless, we don't have enough evidence against her to hold her for long."

I sighed. "It'll be okay," I lied, squeezing his hand. "It'll be okay.

I was discharged from the hospital two days later, with a packet of information about caring for my wounds. Dimitri still refused to leave my side. He temporarily moved me into his apartment, since neither of us wanted me back at the apartment I used to share with Lissa, and he didn't want me back at my parent's old house. Hitting in the same place three times seemed unlikely, but he didn't want to take any chances and he also didn't want me so far away.

I was given the month of December off school, with the expectation that I would return when classes resumed in January, after Christmas. Dimitri wasn't given as much time off but seeing as he no longer needed to keep his cover at the high school, it didn't much matter. He was back full-time with the FBI and was allowed to temporarily work from home while he took care of me.

McKenna stopped by the day after I got to the apartment.

"How are you?"

I shrugged. "I've been better."

"I'm so sorry, Rose," she said. "If I had never left that day—"

"Don't," I said, interrupting. "They probably would have killed you if you had been there."

I could see an argument forming, but she nodded, knowing that my logic was sound.

"I'm leaving in the morning," she said an hour later. "I wanted to see you before I went."

"Thank you for coming," I said. "I'm glad you're doing good."

She hugged me, being gentle and conscious of my wounds. "Hang on to Dimitri," she whispered. "He's a good one."

I nodded. "I know."

McKenna wasn't wrong. Dimitri was one of the good ones. He cared for me, always making sure that I was comfortable and that my wounds were healing properly. It took a week and a half of me convincing and begging before he finally agreed to start being intimate again, and it was another few days before we actually had sex again. I took advantage while I could, and neither of us fell asleep until early morning.

"What do you want to do for Christmas?" he asked as we laid cuddling in bed after sex.

I was practically laying on top of him, and his arms were wrapped around me tightly, keeping me close.

"We can do whatever," I said. "I celebrated with Li– with friends in the past, so we can celebrate with Ivan if you want."

Dimitri looked troubled for a moment. "What would you say to meeting my family and having Christmas with them?"

I pulled away a little to look him in the eye. "As much as I would like to meet your family, my passport was destroyed when the apartment was trashed, and I never got around to replacing it."

"Actually, they're coming here for a week," he said. "The plans were made a while ago, and with everything going, I completely spaced. I'm sorry for springing this on you."

"Oh," I said. "I really would like to meet your family. Are you hosting them here?"

Dimitri laughed. "No, my apartment is too small. I helped them rent an Airbnb not too far from here. It has a large kitchen which is the most important part because my mother loves to cook."

"That'd be great," I said. "Let's do it."

Christmas was five days away when I got the text.

Unknown Sender (14:57): vlad high school's locker room, tomorrow at 6:30. come alone. we're watching

I quickly deleted the message before Dimitri could see it. I knew that I had to go. I had to end this.

The next day, I kept expecting Dimitri to notice that something was up. I tried to be calm, but inside, I was a ball of nerves. I wasn't sure what was going to happen, but I had to keep Dimitri safe. I cuddled with him on the couch, soaking in as much of him as I could until the clock hit 6:15.

I stood. "I'm going to go get pizza. Any requests?"

His brow furrowed. "Why not order in?"

I shrugged. "I've spent so much time in the apartment that I'm okay with driving to go get it. Plus, it saves money."

"Okay. I'll come with."

"No!" I spoke louder than I meant to and quickly tried to make my face go neutral. "I'm fine being alone. I'll be fine."

His eyes narrowed as he tried to read my face. Finally, he sat back down on the couch. "Okay. Text me when you arrive. I'll have whatever you're getting."

I nodded and tried to smile. "I'll be back soon."

The sun was almost completely below the horizon when I stepped into the locker room at Vladimir High School. The room smelled strongly of chlorine from the pool in the next room over, but underneath all of that was the lingering smell of stale sweat and old gym clothes still left in the lockers.

I didn't see Lissa yet, and I glanced around the room, trying to find the best position to have the upper hand. I ended up staying next to the gym door, expecting Lissa to come in from the outer door, which was a good fifty feet away.

She walked in through that door less than thirty seconds later, quickly scanning the room before her eyes landed on me.

"I put some of the dots together," I said, crossing my arms. I wasn't going to give her the upper hand by speaking first. Not this time and not ever again.

"Oh?"

"It was you, wasn't it? The entire time with everything." I asked. "You stalked me. You put the drugs in the water, drugged yourself, just to set me up and make the administration not trust me."

"Ding ding ding," Lissa said, smirking. "You do know how to use your brain."

"But why?"

Lissa shrugged. "Why not?"

I gritted my teeth. "What does Gallagher have over you? The Lissa I knew would never do anything like that."

She laughed. "The Lissa you knew never existed, not truly. I made you see what I wanted you to see. And the only thing that Gallagher had "over" me," she said, using air quotes, "was the truth."

"The truth?" I snapped. "Lissa, he's been manipulating you"

She shook her head. "No, he told me exactly what I needed to hear, and it was the truth. It was always about you. It was you who got my parents killed."

I gaped at her. "Lissa, your parents died because of an illness. They weren't murdered. Not like my parents."

She laughed bitterly. "That's only what they told us. Do you truly think someone just drops dead out of nowhere from the flu and pneumonia? On the same day?"

"Even if what you're saying is true," I started, "what the fuck does that have to do with me? I didn't kill them!"

"You might now have been physically holding the weapon, but that doesn't mean that you're not inherently responsible. My parents took you in, despite knowing who your parents were, and that was their first mistake. After they grew to love you as their own, the Dragons knew something had to be done. Ergo, it's your fault that they're dead."

I shook my head. "No, Lissa. You have it backward. If it wasn't for your group, your parents would have never taken me in. Remember that it's because of them that I even needed to be taken in anywhere since they killed my parents. Before pointing fingers at me, maybe you should look at the ones manipulating you."

She rolled her eyes. "Like I said, it's always about you. Did you truly never question our age distance and our friendship? I'm almost exactly 9 months younger than you. Your parents might have been able to hide their pregnancy until you were born, but all bets were off then. My parents were immediately tasked with having me, with the hope that I could "accidentally" become your friend and get an "in" to your family. Which is exactly what happened. My parents wouldn't have put me in public school if they had another choice," she said, scoffing. "You'd think your parents would have put you in a private school to protect you better, but they must not have cared that much."

"Don't you fucking say a thing against them," I hissed. "They were 100 times better than your parents ever were. At least I wasn't a fucking ploy to hurt someone else."

I was ready when she swung. I blocked her punch and lashed out with a kick. It caught her in the stomach, and she doubled over. I couldn't bring myself to hit her again while she was already down.

"You're not going to mess with me again," I snarled. "You're lucky that you're even still standing here."

Lissa looked up with a smile. "I know that you would never hurt me. And I know that your precious detective boyfriend tracked you here by now, and I know that he's on his way. You're not as smart as you think."

"I didn't tell him anything! Don't you dare hurt him."

"You didn't have to tell him anything, Rose. You wore your watch, which is telling without you actually having to speak the words. Hurting you will hurt him plenty, without us having to do anything else."

I gritted my teeth. Despite everything that she had done, I couldn't bring myself to hit her unless it was in self-defense. I refused to drop as low as she had, refused to stoop to her level, especially when I knew that she was just trying to bait me.

"Don't start something that you can't finish."

"I plan on finishing it. This is the last night, Rose. You're not walking away."

She walked towards me, and I immediately backed up. For every step forward that she took, I took one back.

"You can't run, Rose. Not this time."

She made her move, jumping forward faster than I could back up. She grabbed my hair and pulled, swinging me to the ground. I landed on my hip, and pain shot through me. She lifted one leg off the ground, presumably to kick me, and I lunged for her other leg, knocking her off balance. She fell more gracefully than me, but I could tell that she was hurt.

"This is over, Lissa," I said. "No more."

She gritted her teeth. "That's where you're wrong."

She quickly scrambled on top of me, pinning me down, her nails digging into my shoulders. I struggled under her, trying to use my legs to flip us over. She relaxed her hold for a fraction of a second and I made my move, getting out from under her and standing once again. She stood up as well, and we circled each other.

I saw the silver of a knife glint under the fluorescent lights and scrambled backward. I knew it was me or her, but part of me didn't want to hurt her, despite everything that she'd done to me.

She advanced forward and made a swipe at me. I turned at the last moment, and it hit my arm, drawing blood.

"You don't have to do this," I said, scrambling backward as she continued to advance.

"You don't know what I have to do," she hissed. "You're right; this will be over tonight."

She kept moving forward as she spoke, and I kept moving backward until my back hit a row of lockers. She grinned and adjusted her grip on the knife. I searched around desperately for something that I could use to defend myself but found nothing useful.

I saw the flash of the knife again before I felt the pain as Lissa plunged the blade into my stomach. My legs went weak, but before I fell, I managed to kick one leg out, swiping Lissa's legs from out under her again. She didn't fall gracefully this time. Her head hit the wooden bench between lockers with a sickening thud before falling the rest of the way to the floor, and she didn't get back up.

Black spots danced in front of my eyes, but I couldn't tear my eyes away from Lissa's lifeless body. It looked as though she was sleeping until I saw her eyes. They were staring at nothing. I could feel my heart beating wildly in my chest, and I could hear a roaring in my ears. My hands were sticky with blood that seeped around the knife. The black spots got bigger, but I still refused to look away from Lissa, horrified at what I had done.

Dimitri's cry of "Roza!" was the last thing I heard before the world went black.

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