Page 64 of Loving Her Enemy

“Don’t trust him! Halayna, he’s not who you think he is. He’s a liar.”

What? What the heck was he talking about?

“Shut up!” Sloane growled and kept pounding him.

Halayna gasped. “Sloane, please stop! Hershel, stop him! Somebody do something!”

Why was his security just standing there and not pulling him off Owen? It didn’t make sense. She had to get to him, but when she tried to go around the SUV, Quiana was right there, preventing her from moving forward.

Flashbacks of the mall incident came to the forefront of Halayna’s mind, but she shook them away. She knew Quiana was doing her job, trying to keep her safe, but this was ridiculous.

“Let me go!” she screamed, but the woman was deceptively strong as she held on to Halayna. “Sloane, please. He’s not worth it. He’s not worth you getting into trouble and ending up in jail. I don’t want to lose you! Please, baby, stop! Just stop!” she cried, her chest heaving as fear for him consumed her.

If he killed Owen, it would be all her fault. She couldn’t live with that.

“Make the call,” Halayna thought she heard Sloane rasp. Her pulse was beating loudly in her ear as she swiped at tears she hadn’t been able to hold back.

Make the call? She wasn’t sure what Sloane was talking about, but she did notice Hershel calling someone. That’s also when Jamison pulled Sloane off Owen, who was bleeding on the ground but still alive.

“H—Halayna, he paid me,” Owen yelled, his breaths coming in short spurts. “Sloane paid me to break up with you. He wanted you for himself, and he paid me to leave you before our—”

“Shut up!” Sloane snapped and charged at him again. This time, Hershel was the one who pulled him back.

He paid me.

He paid me to break up with you.

No. No. Sloane wouldn’t do that.

Her kind, loving husband who treated her like a gift from God wouldn’t do that to her. He wouldn’t.

Halayna stumbled away from the car without realizing she was even moving. It wasn’t until Sloane was in front of her, holding her shoulders, that she snapped out of whatever trance she had fallen into.

She jerked out of his hold. “Don’t touch me!” she cried. “Don’t ever touch me.”

“Sweetheart, I have to get you into the car. I’ll explain everything, but it’s not safe for us to be out in the open like this.”

Chest heaving, Halayna looked around frantically as memories of the mall incident crashed through her mind again. Tears blurred her eyes as she kept pushing Sloane away. There were a few people outside. Were they taking pictures? Was she going to be on the internet again?

Her heart was breaking too much to process anything right now, but suddenly she was being lifted.

“Shhh, sweetheart, I got you. God, I’m so sorry,” Sloane was saying as he practically ran to the car. “I am so sorry.”

Within seconds they were in the back seat of the SUV, and she was sitting on Sloane’s lap crying hysterically.

“How could you?” She pounded her fists against his chest. “How could you do that to me?”

His arms tightened around her. He rocked back and forth, and the fight slowly seeped out of her. Halayna didn’t know how long she sat crying against him, but in the distance, she could hear sirens. Still, Sloane didn’t let her go.

When she finally pulled herself together, she pushed against his chest, and he loosened his hold. She climbed off his lap and scurried to the other side of the vehicle, getting as close to the door as possible.

“Is what he said true? You gave him money to break off our engagement?” Hearing her own words out loud made her feel like the biggest fool in the world. “You did all that so I could marry you?”

“No. No, that’s not how it was. Sweetheart, I can explain.”

She noticed his knuckles were bruised and bleeding, but Halayna was too angry to attend to them.

“Let me explain. Just hear me out.”