By the time I got home, the anger still simmered in my chest. The quiet of my house, without Lily here, made everything seem larger and more lonely. The house felt empty. There was no one to tell me I had gone too far. No one to tell me that I shouldn’t have done it. But I knew, deep down, I hadn’t.
The phone rang, shattering the silence. I didn’t have to look at the caller ID to know it was Mark.
I picked up the phone, my voice sharp. “Hello?”
“Anna,” Mark started, his voice clipped. “What you did was insane. You’ve crossed a line. You need to stop acting like this is some sort of revenge game.”
I leaned against the counter, my pulse racing. “I’m not playing a game, Mark. I’m showing you exactly what it feels like when you stand by and let someone destroy something that matters to someone else. You were there. You watched it happen.”
His voice softened, just barely. “I didn’t agree with Rachel’s actions, you know that. But this? You think throwing her bike into the pool will fix things? You think that’s the lesson Lily needs to learn?”