The Last Time I Cried Your Name novel Chapter 415

“Abbot.”

Raindrops glittered in the light. Petty’s eyes landed on the man walking ahead, tall and straight-backed. Her face, already drained of color, froze even paler.

Two faces that could have been mirror images, and voices that sounded almost the same.

Did Abbot just call him Ned?

Before Petty could process it, another figure stepped out from behind Ned—a woman about her height, with a matching build.

Laura gave a sweet smile, but her eyes were cold, hollow, edged with something sharp. She lingered on Petty’s name, making it sound like both a greeting and a threat. “Petty.”

Petty’s eyes dropped. She stared, stunned, at Laura’s legs that now stood perfectly straight. Her lips parted as if to speak, then pressed together before any words escaped.

A sarcastic smile tugged at her mouth. “Why am I not surprised. Your acting’s as flawless as ever.”

She had once thought Laura’s greatest performance was pretending to be her best friend. But this, fooling everyone for years by staying in that wheelchair, pretending to be helpless—this was something else.

Nobody was harder on Laura than Laura herself.

Hatred flared in Laura’s eyes as she looked at Petty. Laura remembered how easily Petty had won over Franco, while she had to fake a disability just to get a tiny scrap of his attention.

Now Petty, who seemed to have everything handed to her, dared to call Laura a good actress.

Yeah, right.

Laura’s hand came flying up, aiming for Petty’s face. But Petty was quicker, jerking up the arm that Abbot had been gripping and snapping it to the side so that his hand, not hers, took the hit.

Abbot lifted his gaze. In the eerie blue glow, the polite, well-dressed exterior slipped away. There was something cold and violent just beneath the surface, a warning in the set of his jaw.

For a second, it seemed like if Laura's hand touched his, he might just break it.

Laura’s eyes narrowed. She slowly lowered her hand.

Abbot glanced at Petty, almost amused that she’d just used him as a shield.

Ned didn’t argue. He dropped Petty from his shoulder like she weighed nothing.

Her feet never landed right. She hit the ground, more on her butt than her shoes, annoyed but secretly relieved. This Ned must be Jay’s twin. Same face, same voice, same weird obsession with staying clean.

If she’d stayed on his shoulder, she would have been too dizzy to think about escaping.

The rain let up. Moonlight slid across the tops of the hills.

They were out of the mountains now, walking along the slopes. Cabinda was far behind them.

Petty had no idea how much time had passed since Abbot’s phone call about the helicopter. She only knew she was running out of chances fast.

Ned was tough. Laura knew her way too well.

How was she supposed to get away?