My hands scrabble for purchase on anything within reach as I fly over the railing. My palms hit the metal bar running across the top, and I cling to it for dear life.
Giuliano is peering down at me a heartbeat later. He’s already laughing heartily, cruelly, as he assesses my predicament.
“I was prepared to wait years for this,” he declares. “But I’m glad I’m still young enough to enjoy this properly.”
Without warning, he pounds down on my left hand hard enough to break my fingers. I let go of the bar instinctively, the muscles in my right arm straining to hold on.
“You humiliated me for five years, shoved me in this prison in the sky while you ruined everything I had spent a lifetime building.”
“CAS!” I scream out. I’m desperate to see her, to hear her voice one last time, but there’s no response.
I try to hoist myself back up to grip the bar again with my left hand, but my broken fingers won’t respond to my command.
“But today, fate has granted me a reward for my suffering.” My father presses down on my remaining right hand. “Your death will be sweet, but not as good as raising my new heir myself.”
No. No.
“Don’t you dare fucking touch them.”
Giuliano merely smirks. “Don’t worry, I’ll make sure Miss Bellini is very comfortable when you’re gone.”
Time slows as three things happen simultaneously.
My father increases the weight on my hand, and my fingers begin to slip.
I have the sudden, terrible realization that I never told Cas that I love her.
And a pair of shears pierce through Giuliano’s neck.
Blood spurts from his mouth like a fountain of pure death. My brain barely registers what it’s seeing as he sags forward and topples head-first over the railing.
But as his body knocks into mine, my grip on the bar fails me.
This is it.
I close my eyes, bracing myself for the sudden rush of wind that will inevitably lead to my crushing death on the sidewalk fifty-three stories below.
My last comforting thought is that at least now, Cas will be free.
“Oh no, you fucking don’t!”
Something firm snatches at my wrist, nearly pulling my arm out of the socket.
My eyes snap open with alarm, only to find Teo half hanging off the balcony, face covered in blood spray and clutching onto me with sheer determination. Cas, at his side, anchors him, all the while trying to reach down to me, too.
I rally myself, operating on pure adrenalin, as I reach up to grab Teo’s forearm with my broken hand, willing my appendages to lock into place.
Teo pulls with a yell of agony, and then suddenly, another pair of hands are snatching at my shirt and pulling me up, too.
Between them, I make it up inch by bloody inch until they can roll me over the railing and back onto the safety of the balcony, completely and utterly spent.
By the sound of panting, I know the others have collapsed nearby as well.
“Cas? I…”
A small, shaking body slams into mine. Arms wrap around my neck, and I immediately hold her to me, wanting every part ofher pressed into me, needing every reassurance possible that she’s alive and here and safe.
This beautiful, brave woman who is carrying my baby. Our baby.
