Tryst Six Venom (Tryst Six, #1)

by Penelope Douglas

“You’re going to stand up,” he says. I shake, a cry in my throat. “I can’t . . . stand up.” I gasp, fighting for air. “I can’t breathe.” He pulls my hands away, and I see him hover over me and take my face in his hands. “You’re going to stand up,” he tells me, “and you’re gonna do your homework, and you’re gonna go to prom.” My stomach twists into knots, and I shake my head. I can’t. “You’re going to be in the same room with her, Monday through Friday for the rest of the school year, and you’re not sacrificing yourself out of fear. You’re going to do all of this, Liv.” I cry harder, squeezing my eyes shut. I’m not in love with her. She can’t do this to me. This wasn’t supposed to happen. “You’re going to go to Dartmouth.” He dips his head down close to mine, holding my eyes. “And you’re going to join a club and make some friends, and in a couple of months you’re going to have a life.” How? “You’re going to leave,” he grits out. “You’re going to leave here and leave any hope of her. You’re going to do the hardest thing you’ve ever had to do, because it’ll save you, Liv. Because you’re Trysta Jaeger’s daughter, and we’re going to do what she would’ve wanted us to do and didn’t have the courage to do herself. We keep biting back. We survive, because sometimes that’s the most violent thing we can do to other people. We stay alive.” My body shakes as the tears pour. “And in a year, you won’t even understand how you could have loved her this much,” he tells me. “I promise you.” ...