Chapter 2

When I woke, the nurse had just finished changing my dressing. She warned me,

"You had acute stomach bleeding. You can't let yourself get too worked up."

My phone lit up.

A message from Juliana.

[Austin, I never meant to scare you.]

[I was right outside the door the whole time. If anything had gone wrong I'd have rushed in that second. Do you think I could ever bear to see you hurt?]

For three years, Juliana really had been good to me.

When I wouldn't eat, she'd sit at the table and feed me one bite at a time.

When I jerked awake in the middle of the night, she'd hold me and soothe me patiently. "Don't be scared. I'm here."

When I broke down sobbing over what my body had become, she'd pull me into her arms.

"Austin, you don't have to turn into anyone."

"Just staying alive is already brave enough."

She made me believe she was someone I could give my whole life to. She made me lay every fragile part of myself bare in front of her.

And now she was using that fragility as a chip in her bet with Bob.

Another message came in.

[Bob didn't do it on purpose either.]

[Just apologize to him, and this will all blow over.]

I stared at the screen, and the pain twisted in my stomach again.

Of course. Her apologies had never been about comforting me. They only ever existed to make me comfort Bob.

In the hospital corridor, someone pointed at me.

"That's him, right? The guy online who went looking to hook up with a woman."

"I heard he even faked having anorexia, fishing for sympathy."

I froze for a few seconds, then opened my phone right away.

A video was blowing up online.

In it, I was pinned to the floor by a woman, my clothes in disarray.

But the first half had been cut. All that was left was me scrambling up, slapping her, and finally running off.

The caption read: [Guy propositions a woman for a hookup, meets up, is disgusted by her looks, and beats her in a rage.]

The comments were nothing but filth.

I went into Bob's account. He'd just posted a long statement.

[I didn't want to say too much about a friend's private business. But seeing everyone attack the girl, I felt I had to say something fair on her behalf.]

Below it, he'd attached a chat log.

[Bob, can you set me up with a woman?]

[I want to try it. I'm tired of playing innocent.]

The messages really did carry my photo and my name, but I had never said any of it.

Bob replied in the comments,

[He's just been emotionally unstable since he got sick. Please don't come down too hard on him.]

[I'll stay with him through treatment.]

It looked like he was clearing my name. In reality, he was dumping every drop of the filth onto me.

A few minutes later, a voice message from Juliana came through.

"Just kneel and apologize to Bob and it'll all be over. He'll take the video down, and in a few days no one will remember anything online. You won't have to be afraid anymore."

I listened to it, then slowly closed my eyes.

She was still the same. Push me into the pit first, then stand at the edge and tell me not to be afraid.

That afternoon, Juliana and Bob came to the hospital together.

Juliana's voice was heavy.

"Austin, apologize to Bob, and I'll get someone to take the video down."

I looked up at her, and it struck me as absurd.

"Why should I?"

She frowned. "You slapped him. Isn't that enough?"

"And what about me?"

"You're fine, aren't you?!"

The instant those words landed, the last flicker of hope in me went out completely.

Bob walked to the side of the bed.

"Austin, I know you don't like me, but honestly, I think of you as family — you're the guy who's with my sister."

As he spoke, his finger suddenly hooked out.

The IV stand crashed over, the needle raking across the back of my hand, blood welling up.

The pain made me suck in a sharp breath.

But Juliana went straight to Bob, steadying him, bending to check his hand.

"Bob, are you okay?"

"I'm fine. Just startled me a little."

She turned back, her brows knotting hard.

"Austin, can you not always be so aggressive?"

I looked at her and felt filthy all of a sudden. So filthy I didn't even want her concern anymore.

That night, my company suspended me. The reason given was a disorderly personal life.

My father saw the video online too, and it triggered a heart attack. They rushed him into the ICU.

By the time I reached the hospital, Juliana was standing at the billing window, having paid a sum for me.

When she saw me, she said flatly,

"Apologize to Bob, and I'll pull the video and clear your name."

"Your father's medical team, I can help arrange that too."

I stood there, cold all over.

"So you came here to force me to apologize?"

"No one's forcing you."

Bob's expression was all innocence. "You did something wrong. You should just face the consequences."

I stared at him.

"You faked the chat log, filmed me in secret, put the video online. So who exactly is the one who did something wrong?"

Juliana said in a low voice,

"Austin, do you really have to be this stubborn? Fine. Then let your father keep lying in there."

I tilted my head back, staring hard at the ceiling, forcing the tears back down bit by bit.

"I'll say it one more time. I'm not the one who's wrong, and I won't apologize."