AllFreeNovel
Share Us
“Wren, what’s wrong?”
Bee moves to take the pictures from my hands but I rip away from her before she can. Despite my seven-month stomach, I lurch to my feet fast and run straight for the bathroom, taking the pictures with me. I slam the door shut and flip through the photographs I haven’t seen yet.
I was wrong; Dmitri had nothing to do with this envelope. Which begs the question: why would someone send me pictures of Rose and Jared’s crash?
I freeze on the fourth photograph in the bunch. My fingers are trembling so hard that I almost drop them all.
No. No. No.
But it’s not a trick of the mind. It’s not Photoshop. It’s not doctored.
It’s Dmitri.
He’s standing on the curb, gazing at the Ford Focus. He’s got a gun in his hand and his arm raised, pointed straight at the car.
Straight at my sister.
61
WREN
“Wren, sweetheart, please come out.”
I stuff my fist into my mouth to keep from screaming. That’s not quite enough, so I bite into my knuckles until I taste blood. In a perverse way, the stinging pain does help. It makes the outside match my insides.
“I told Syrah that it was just hormones and you needed some space,” Bee continues. “She left, okay? It’s just you and me. Come out and we can talk.”
Bee’s voice is calm but I no longer trust the concern in it. All I hear is a woman trying to “manage” me for her murderer fiancé. I can’t trust her any more than I can trust him.
“Wren, whatever’s in those pictures, it’s not true. Don’t believe it.”
“Liar!” I scream, my voice bursting out so violently that even I’m taken back by it. “You’re a fucking liar, just like him!”
There’s silence for a moment. I can hear her shuffling around outside in the den. Does she have a key to the bathroom? Is she gonna break down the door? Is she going to hurt me now that I know?
I can’t breathe. Hell, I can barely think straight. The pictures from the red envelope are sprawled out across the blue-and-white mosaic tiles in chronological order.
The first picture is a grainy image of an approaching Ford Focus.
The last one is fire and blood and twisted, mangled bodies.
After what I’ve seen, I can’t just assume that my presence in Dmitri’s life is coincidental. I mean, fuck, he probably knew who I was from the moment I started working for him. Is that why I was hired? Because for some reason, he had it in for Rose and Jared?
But why?
Why?
I blink and I see Jared staring straight at me in the mirror’s reflection. I blink again and it’s Rose sitting calmly on the closed toilet, her expression pitying.
I stifle another scream when something inside of me moves. A shuddering little flutter stroking at my stomach from within.
I look down at my belly as the fluttering grows more pronounced. Slowly, fearfully, I raise my blouse. I can see him moving in there, pushing against my stomach impatiently.
My baby.
A tear falls onto my naked belly. “Hi, baby,” I whisper. “Hi, my little angel…”
This should be a happy moment. But how can it be? Dmitri has stolen everything from me—including the joy of this miracle pregnancy. Even that is called into question. How “miraculous” was it, really? What strings did he pull?
