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And she was going to be. I’d brought her here. I’d used her deepest desire to keep her bound to me. And even if I died, I’d make sure it came true.
“She’s a liar.” Disgust rolled through me because Grace was at the mercy of another of my relatives. Because it was becoming clear that my mother had always known what Mitchell was because she’d helped make him that way. “She just wants your money. She’s not good enough for you.”
“You-you can’t do this.” My body tightened as Grace spoke. My gaze went to her and the blood running down from a cut near her eye. I shook my head, trying to tell her to stay quiet. But she wasn’t looking at me. She was pleading with the crazy woman holding her captive. “I’m pregnant. I’m carrying your grandchild right now.”
My lungs felt like they were being ripped from my chest. I couldn’t breathe. Her bright smile from this morning came back to me. That’s what she wanted to tell me.
“See lies! More lies!” Crazed, she waved her arms around.
She had a gun pointed at my wife.
My pregnant wife.
I finally lifted my own. Made the choice. My family or Grace. It was the easiest decision I’d ever made. One I should’ve made years ago.
“Stop this.” My voice was steel, hiding all the fear I felt for my wife. Instead, letting Joyce see the man she’d raised. She hadn’t created just one monster. “Don’t make me kill you.”
She dared to look outraged. “You’d kill your own mother?”
“For Grace?” I risked glancing at my wife for a moment. Tears clung to her thick lashes, making her eyes even more beautiful. I repeated words I’d told her before. A promise I intended to keep. “I’d rip out my own beating heart if it pleases her.”
I tried to convey with this brief look that I loved her. Because I wasn’t going to say it. I refused to say goodbye. This wasn’t the end. I wouldn’t let it be.
“See.” The connection broke too soon as I looked at Joyce. Not my mother; she would never be my mother again.
She stepped towards me, a wild gleam in her eyes. But it didn’t matter as long as she moved away from my wife. She was to my right, a few feet from my wife. Grace on my left a little farther back. “She has you under her spell. I have to save you.”
It only takes a second to decide to kill. To feel that break in your soul. I’d done it enough to know. I’d seen a hundred people with that expression. A lot of them wanting to murder me. But they hadn’t succeeded yet.
So I recognized the look in my mother’s eyes. Observed as her features harden. Then she turned back to Grace. And I watched the trigger depress as she pulled it.
In that moment, that half second, I knew if I pulled mine, it wouldn’t be enough. It wouldn’t stop the bullet that was already headed towards my wife.
So I moved. My body and mind making an instinctive choice. It would always be her.
Another shot rang out as the bullet pierced my skin. But I wasn’t sure if it was her or me that did it. I felt the tiny piece of metal ripping through my flesh and muscles. Felt the warmth of blood trickle down, but adrenaline clogged my system, so it didn’t hurt. Instead, relief filled my lungs as I drew my first full breath since seeing Grace.
I heard a scream, then shouts and footsteps, but none of it mattered as I fell to my knees in front of her. The momentum of my body and the bullet propelled me forward. I had just enough sense to throw out my arms. I caught her around the thighs, my head landing there like a soft cushion.
“Untie me! Untie me right fucking now!” Grace shouted, but I didn’t know who she was talking to. I couldn’t move. Couldn’t see.
The edges of my vision started to blur and turn gray. A shiver ran down my spine, and I tightened my hold on my wife. At least, I thought I did. It was hard to tell.
But then she was grabbing me. She wrapped her small arms around my shoulders as we slipped to the floor. I had one arm circling her waist. My head still in her lap.
“I’ve got you, Sunflower.” I wasn’t sure she heard me because my mind was filled with the pounding of my heart. Even I knew it was too slow, each beat taking a little longer.
Something splashed along my cheek, and that’s when I realized she was crying. Her red hair was flying around her face, sticking to the tears. The blood on her skin diluted and fell down with their flow. She gasped like she couldn’t breathe.
No, she needed to breathe. She needed to live. I reached up, grasping her face. My blood transferred to her cheeks. Where did that come from?
My mind was growing foggy. It was spinning and turning. But I held onto Grace, onto her gorgeous face that I’d been staring at for years. That I’d fallen in love with in a moment. A moment that changed my life just like this one.
“Why are you crying, Sunflower?”
“Because you’re shot.” Her voice cracked as her fingers dug into my body.
“I don’t feel it when you let me hold you.” I tried to squeeze her tighter, but my arms wouldn’t work.
