Noah folded his arms. “I didn’t tell him. He looked you up, and then asked me about it. All I did was tell him the truth.”

All the blood rushed from my face to pool around my feet. “The truth? So, you think I did it.”

“I think Serena loves you, and it’s blinded her.” He regarded me carefully. “Did you know she’s put her life on hold because of you? She refuses to move in with me until you get your shit together, and she’s taking a lot of flack from her bosses, too. They haven’t put her on a few high-profile cases because they don’t want some clever reporter to find the link between their firm and you. As long as you’re living with her, you’re holding her back.”

“What?” I took a step back as the world tilted beneath my feet. “That can’t be right. Serena would have told me.”

He lifted his brows above his glasses. “You really think she’d tell you and hurt you like that? Serena is loyal to a fault.”

I closed my eyes as the pain wrapped around my heart. He was right. There wasn’t a chance in hell my best and oldest friend would ever tell me she suffered because of her association with me. She’d do anything to protect me. And I’d do the same for her. We’d always stood beside each other despite it all, and now she was paying for it.

“You better get out of here,” Noah said, his voice cutting through my thoughts. “My boss is coming, and he looks pretty pissed.”

“Yeah, whatever,” I mumbled, turning away.

“Oh, and Mia?” he said just as I started toward the door. I paused but kept my gaze forward. I couldn’t bear to look at him right now. “Think about what I said. If you care about Serena the way she cares about you, you’ll find a way to move out of her apartment.”

Blinking back the tears, I raced out of the cafe and onto the sidewalk. Cars rushed past. A group of teens stumbled by, laughing uproariously. The world continued on while my whole life was stuck in standstill. How would I ever get past that damn manslaughter charge? My only two friends in the entire world were my next door neighbor from elementary school, whose life I was ruining, and a pigeon who only liked me for my food.

My life had gone to hell in a hand-basket.

* * *

I wandered around the neighborhood for a few hours before returning to Serena’s apartment. She’d be at work, but I still couldn’t face the tiny couch jammed into the tiny room. It felt like a cage, one I would never escape. The judge may have acquitted me, but I’d still ended up in another form of jail. And it felt like I was sentenced to life.