Page 183 of Fatality

My knees give out, and I collapse to the floor.

My own boyfriend just tried to kill me.

How could he? I thought he was the only person safe enough for me to be around.

Liam loved me but he also loved me enough to make sure I never left him—not in any way he couldn’t control.

Why was I even with him in the first place?

He was kind, patient, loving. But sex was always gentle, almost too gentle.

From the very beginning, he always finished, I never did.

I tried so many times to tell him about my brother, about my parents, about my past, my true past.

He comforted me, but he never really listened.

I never got the chance to simply say, Oh, by the way, my brother is dead, and my parents have hated me since the day I was born.

Maybe he preferred the version of me he had built in his head, the heiress girlfriend. Just rebellious enough to have a little spice, just broken enough to be perfectly manageable.

I don't know.

He’s the kind of person who wants everything perfect and when something cracks… He throws money at it, hoping it’ll fix itself.

I look up and see that Liam has stabbed Evren, I flinch as if I'd been the one stabbed.

Not because I care about Evren but because I've never seen Liam fight.

Never seen him defend me when another man got too close. Never seen him become violent.

And yet he nearly strangled me over a shirt, and because I didn't—couldn't—answer him while my comm was sitting here.

I don't even recognize the man standing in front of me.

Evren doesn't hide who he is, I envy him for that.

He's unhinged, violent. He takes whatever he wants, whenever he wants, boundaries and the no-no square are nonexistent for him.

To Evren, they're just things meant to be crossed. He's completely unapologetic.

But at least he's himself and I don't think he'd ever change for anyone.

The screams of Liam are pure horror and pain,

Why did Evren save me? It wasn't out of the goodness of his heart. That's for sure but he saved me anyway.

I owe him that.

I push myself up and sway to the kitchen, and freeze, Evren is cutting Liam wrist, for what?

For putting those hands around my throat and almost kill me?

I almost throw up at the sight, the flesh, the blood everywhere splattering Evren, Liam is almost out.

But the worst part is the sound of it and the screams.

It’s a slaughter.