"What?" I gasped, fixing my gaze on him, a mixture of disbelief and horror etched across my face.
"Yes, Elena," Paul acknowledged, closing his eyes as if lost in a dark memory. The weight of his confession hung heavily in the room, a suffocating reality I struggled to grasp.
He continued, smiling, "but you were looking so lovely in that dress and that necklace," his words, laced with an unsettling admiration, only intensified the discomfort in the air.
"So it's not the fault of Derek. Any boy who sees you in that way will do the same," he asserted, his rationalization adding another layer to the distorted reality.
"So you gave me the chain," I shouted at him, the revelation hitting me like a physical blow. Paul nodded in acknowledgment, his demeanor unapologetic.
Slap!
