My eyes snap shut, and my body trembles.
I don’t dare open them.
I can’t … but I must.
I have to see, have to know the truth, even if it kills me.
When I do, my knees buckle, and my throat slams shut. I can’t breathe. I can’t think. All I can do is catch my body as I fall to the floor and heave.
Two dead bodies. Blood seeping out from the burlap sacks.
A wail escapes my mouth, a sound I’ve never heard before. Tears stream down my cheeks as my body collapses and my lungs constrict. My stomach turns itself over, and I puke on the floor.
I feel crippled. Split in half and laid out in the dirt.
My two best friends—Deion, the only guy who knew what happened to me and accepted me just the way I am, and Ashanti, the most innocent, lively girl in this city.
Dead.
And for no other reason than my father’s fear of dying.
How dare he? Their lives were not less important than his.
And how dare Easton betray me like this?
My nostrils flare as I crawl up to my knees, my nails burying into my skin as I drag myself off the ground. There are no people in front of me.
“You monster …” I growl, glaring at Easton.
How could I ever say I felt something for this beast? The mere thought makes the bile rise up my throat again.
“How could you?” I scream. “They were innocent!”
“Nick, take her away,” Easton says, throwing the gun on the table. “And call the cleanup crew from the Company. Tell them we have two bodies they need to get rid of.”
“Yes, sir.”
Nick tries to grab my arm, but I pull away. Marching straight toward Easton, I slap him right in the face.
“How dare you?” I growl.
He doesn’t flinch, and he doesn’t say a word. He merely stands there and accepts the blow as if it means nothing. As if their lives were worth the pain he’d have to endure.
But this painful dagger in my heart will never stop piercing me, and I will make sure he feels every single stab along with me.
I punch him in the chest again and again until my hands start to hurt. Nick wraps his arms around my waist and drags me with him out of the room.
“No! Let go of me!” I growl, punching his arms, but he’s much stronger than I am.
“I’m sorry, but I can’t do that, ma’am,” he says, pulling me into a different room at the end of the hallway.
“You’re murderers! All of you!” I scream, hoping Easton and my father can hear. As Nick closes the door, I shove my foot in the space, and say, “You won’t get away with this. None of you will.”
“I’m sorry, ma’am, but you will have to stay here,” he says.
“How long?” I growl as he pushes back my foot.
“I can’t say, but it will all be explained soon.”
His last comment catches me so off guard that I lose control over the door, and he shuts it right in front of me. I fiddle the door handle, but of course, he locked the damn thing.
I bang on the wood a couple of times but to no avail. Either no one can hear me, or I’m being ignored.
Fuck.
I pace through the room, grunting and growling, wishing I could change the past. If only I’d talked to them sooner. I could’ve called him, warned him, gotten to him … I don’t know, anything. Anything would’ve been enough to save them.
But I couldn’t. I couldn’t save them, and now they’re dead.
I sink to the floor on my knees and bury my face in my hands as tears roll down my cheeks.
Poor Ashanti and Deion. They must’ve been so scared.
They died a horrible, lonely death, and it was all because of me … because of Easton’s choice to aid my father in his terrible ideas.
There’s no coming back from this, no changing what’s been done.
My friends are dead … and I despise Easton, and all that it means to be his wife.
Easton
It takes an hour for the cleaning crew to arrive. They take the bodies without many remarks, and I pay them in cash at the door, as always. It’s not often that I leave bodies in my wake, but when I do, I always call the right people who know how to make things disappear fast and efficiently. They even clean up the blood on the floor and any scraps left. It’s as if nothing ever happened here in this dining room because when they leave, it’s spotless and as perfect as it was before all of this went down. Before I had to do the one thing I wish I never had to do.
I swallow down the lump in my throat.
Charlotte must hate me now, but I will take her anger with all my might. I won’t fight her because I know she needs to process her emotions. I won’t take that time away from her … I’ve already taken enough.
Davis adjusts in his seat with a dirty smile on his face. “Well, I have to say, I am impressed.”
“Get out,” I growl.
I can’t look at that piece of shit one minute longer.
He scoots back his chair. “Is that a way to treat a friend?”
Friend? My nostrils flare. “You are not a friend. Get out of my house. Now.”
He clears his throat. “Fine … if you want it to be that way.”
“You got what you wanted, now leave,” I reply, balling my hands into fists.
I have to control myself, or it’ll all have been for nothing.
“That’s true. Now that the guy’s dead, I take it my life will be secure?”
I don’t respond. I don’t fucking care about him, and I never did.
“But suit yourself,” he adds. He waddles out the door, and I wait to hear the front door open and close before my muscles relax again.
Fuck that piece of shit. Fuck him and his stupid ideas and his need to ruin the only girl I ever cared about … Charlotte.
I swallow away the lump in my throat. I have to go see her. But how do I explain what just happened? How do I tell her the truth? She’ll never believe me.
Still, I go to the guest room Nick put her in with my head held high.
WHACK!
A book hits me straight in the face and falls to the floor.
“You fucking asshole!” she yells, tears on the brink of falling down her cheeks.
She’s so beautiful when she’s mad.
She throws another book, but this time, I block it with my forearm. She picks up a large candle, but before she can throw that too, I’ve marched toward her and grabbed her wrist.
“Let go of me!” she screeches.
“Calm down,” I say.
“Fuck you!” She spits in my face. “You killed them! You fucking killed them!” She attempts to slap me with her other hand, so I grab that wrist too. “Let me go and face the fucking consequences of your actions.”
“I want to explain,” I say.
“There’s no reason, no explanation for any of this. I don’t care what you have to say. This is over. We’re done.” She spits her words like vomit as though it pains her to have to say them, but she’s right. I am the bad guy, and I won’t refute that.
“I’m sorry,” I say. “I won’t ask you to forgive me.”
“Like I ever could,” she growls, tears rolling down her cheeks. “You made me trust you, and then you threw it back in my face.”
I take a deep breath. “You may hate me right now, but I am still going to ask you one last thing.”
“Don’t. I’m through with you,” she says through gritted teeth.
“Come with me. I need to show you something.” I turn around with my hand still wrapped firmly around her wrist. She digs her heels in while I push ahead. She rams her fist into my arm, but I refuse to release her from my grip.
“I won’t ask for anything else. Just come with me now,” I say.
“No!” she growls. “Where are you taking me?” She huffs and puffs as she tries to get rid of me, but we both know I’m the stronger one here. She’s never been feistier, though, and I don’t dare glance at her over my shoulder because those eyes alone could kill.
“Easton, stop! Just let me fucking go, dammit,” she swears as we approach the study.
I take my key from my pocket and shove it into the lock. When the door opens, I pull her in and push her in front of me. Now’s the moment of truth. This is where she’ll learn who I really am.
