"I did like Brandon once, but that's ancient history," she would snap. "You can't drag an innocent man into this just to evade your own responsibility. Justin, the misery you've caused is enough. Don't bully a pitiful man to make yourself feel better."
Her accusations piled onto my guilt like stones.
Desperate to find Mandy, I quit my job. I gave up my dreams. I spent my days rushing down dead-end roads. In three years, I traveled across half the country. I knelt until my knees bled at over a hundred temples, praying for a miracle.
Each time I left with hope; each time I returned with nothing but ash in my mouth.
The ridicule of neighbors and the condemnation of relatives swallowed me whole. My parents' accusations left me nowhere to hide. Night after night, I punished my own body. I cried until my throat was raw, repenting for a mistake that wasn't mine.
In the end, the burden became too heavy. I chose death to end the pain.
But even as the icy river water filled my lungs, I couldn't forget that night three years ago. And I couldn't forgive the incompetent fool I had been.
It wasn't until I rushed toward death that the truth finally pierced the veil.
Mandy's disappearance wasn't my fault.