What's Done in Darkness Read Online Free Page A

position.
    But I jerked the car too hard. Because it swerved and spun. And then it crashed.
    The air bag exploded in my face.
    And then everything went black.

 
    CHAPTER THREE
    My eyelids fluttered as I slowly came awake. A strange sensation of disorientation hit me like a ton of bricks. As I tried to fully open my eyes, pain pierced my head. I raised my hand to bring it to my forehead, only to find it constricted.
    My eyes popped open, and the disorientation intensified. That’s when I saw my sister, Marie, sitting beside me. A look of concern mixed with disapproval marred her pretty features.
    â€œMar—” My voice croaked, and I stopped.
    â€œYou crashed your car,” she said, her words sounding like an accusation.
    â€œI—I did?”
    â€œYou don’t remember?”
    I shook my head, narrowing my eyes as I stared at Marie. She was wearing her nurse scrubs, which led me to believe she’d been by my side. Her hair was pulled back in a tight bun, the way she wore it at work. She had flawless skin the color of hot chocolate, and with her hair pulled back and no makeup she normally looked like a teenager.
    But not today. She looked like she had aged two decades.
    I could hear the constant beep of a machine beside my bed. I was in a hospital. The curtain drawn around my bed told me that, as surely as the IV I noticed in my hand.
    â€œAre we in Erie?” That was where my sister lived and worked. Where I lived when I wasn’t at school.
    â€œErie?” She scoffed. “No, you made sure to crash your car on the 33 expressway in Buffalo. Heading west. Were you planning to head home—or were you just being reckless?”
    I closed my eyes tightly, trying to recall what had happened. The 33 expressway. Yes. It was coming back to me. Driving. Being angry. Losing control.
    Wesley.
    I was hurt. I was in the hospital. So why did my sister seem pissed off instead of relieved?
    â€œWhy are you angry?” I asked, my voice weak. “If I was in an accident, I could be dead right now.”
    â€œAccident, right.” Marie snorted. “I heard the witness accounts from the police. Jade, you’re out of control. Losing it.”
    â€œHuh?”
    â€œWitnesses said you were all over the place. Driving like an enraged maniac. What were you doing— trying to kill yourself?” She held my eyes, giving me a pointed look.
    â€œNo,” I said. “Of course not. How could you ask me that?”
    My sister simply tightened her lips and shook her head.
    I angled my head away from her toward the window where sunlight spilled into the room, pain slicing through my head as I did so. I knew what she was thinking. Why she had asked the question—one that hadn’t been rhetorical. I also knew why she didn’t seem to believe my answer. Just over a year ago, when our stepfather died of cancer, I had unraveled. With him being our only caregiver after our mother died fifteen years earlier, I hadn’t known how to cope with my grief. And in that state of devastation, I’d done something incredibly stupid. I’d taken a handful of sleeping pills.
    But it wasn’t like I’d wanted to die. Because after I took all those pills, I was smart enough to call my boyfriend and tell him what I’d done. I’d been rushed to the hospital, my stomach pumped, and in the end I’d been fine.
    Physically anyway. But I hadn’t been able to function, so I had taken a semester off of school to try to emotionally recover. Which was why I didn’t graduate with the rest of my class.
    â€œYou know I love you,” Marie said, and sighed wearily. “I’m just … afraid for you. This thing with Wesley—”
    â€œIt’s not a thing . It’s a relationship.”
    â€œAnd life goes on. He said he wanted to take a break. In a year if you still love each other, then you’ll know you have the real deal. Trying to kill