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Kate smiled pleasantly as she cocked her head to one side. “Home? Sakura, do you even have a home to go to?” Then she laughed maniacally. “If you mean Princeton Mansion, I don’t think that’s your home.” She pulled Sakura by the collar, which took Sakura by surprise. Then she shoved Sakura forward. “You don’t have a home, you slut. You don’t belong at Princeton Mansion. In fact, you don’t belong with the Princetons at all. You’re just a freeloader, sucking their life and money.”
Sakura gritted her teeth and pulled back. “What are you talking about?”
“What am I talking about? What am I talking about?” Kate asked sarcastically. “Why don’t you just get it straight in that dumb head of yours? That you don’t belong with the Princeton family. That all you’ve ever done is cause the family to break apart. Let’s just face it, why don’t we? You’ve destroyed both Tara’s and Alaina’s life.”
Sakura shook her head as Kate started moving toward her in a threatening way, like she’d always done in high school.
“First, you burned down the orphanage and killed Tara’s mom because you bloody well hated Tara’s and her mom’s guts so much. Then you played the helpless little girl so you could get adopted by one of the wealthiest families in America. Then, of course, you use your bloody tricks to take poor Darcy away from Alaina, spinning his head with lies and making them turn against one another. Now you even take dear Sebastian away from poor Tara. Now, did I forget something else? Ah, how about James? He’s so bloody smitten with you that he forgot about his own children. Oh, Alaina told me all about how you used your bloody tricks on James. How he took Alaina’s inheritance away and gave it to you.”
“What? That’s not true,” Sakura said, shaking her head. “Kate, I don’t have to listen to your stupid accusations. Now get out of my way. I’m going home.”
“Shut up! Just shut up, bitch,” Kate said. “You know, these people are good people, and I, for one, will not allow a wicked bitch like you to hurt them.” She grabbed Sakura by the hair and roughly slammed her head and body against the rocky wall of the cave.
The impact was so great that it nearly broke Sakura’s bones, and she fell to the ground, her head spinning and her body aching. Her breathing was short as she tried to get up to get away from the woman who obviously wanted to kill her. She needed to gain control of herself. She needed to defend herself. She had to. She couldn’t allow this woman to bully her anymore, to hurt her anymore.
When Sakura managed to gain control of her body again, she looked up to see Kate taking a Swiss Army knife out of her belt.
Sakura gritted her teeth and pushed herself up, ignoring the pain that was coursing through her body. She tried to get up but found that her body was too weak and the pain was too unbearable. Suddenly Kate was on top of her, kneeing her to the ground.
Sakura watched in horror as Kate brought the Swiss Army knife down toward her. She screamed, and instantly, before the knife could cut her flesh, Sakura’s hand shot out and held Kate’s wrist, stopping her in time.
“Why are you doing this?” she panted out lowly, her face pale.
“To get rid of you. You’ve destroyed too many lives. You’ve destroyed Tara’s life. You’ve destroyed Alaina’s life. They’re my best friends. Now you’ve also destroyed my life. You took my Darcy away from me. You’ve ruined my life, you bitch.”
Kate applied more force, her face red as she brought the knife closer to Sakura’s throat, ready to slice her life away.
Sakura wanted to cry out. Oh, God! The fear within her was overwhelming. What if Kate did manage to slice her throat here and now and kill her in an instant?
Sakura couldn’t think further and managed to jostle the knife out of Kate’s hand. Kate scrambled for her precious weapon. Sakura took the opportunity to shove Kate back, causing the other woman to fall on her backside. Sakura chose the chance to run out of the cave and into the storm outside.
The rain was hard and heavy and beating down on her with a ferocious anger. She couldn’t see a thing as she raced down the narrow pathway she hoped would lead her to somewhere safe.
“Come back here, bitch,” Kate shouted after her. “I’m going to kill you for what you did.”
Sakura wasn’t listening. She raced around the sharp corner, nearly slipping on the muddy pathway. She blinked away rainwater from her eyes as she searched in panic which way to go.
“Sakura! Where the fuck are you?” Kate screamed in the rain. “Come back here and let me kill you properly!” Then she laughed.
Sakura came to a sudden stop and nearly fell off the cliff. It was a dead end. She shot back and clung flat against the wall. She closed her eyes and took a deep breath, praying very hard that she wouldn’t fall.
“You know,” Kate said, not too far away, rain beating down on her. “This is a pretty good place for you to die. Instead of me slicing your throat to make it look like suicide, maybe I’ll throw you off the cliff and make it look like an accident. What do you think, Sakura?”
Sakura felt her heart thumping loud and furious within her chest, her head spinning and her whole body shaking. How did it come to this? Why was Kate trying to kill her? She hadn’t done anything to deserve this.
She bit her lip and peeked down. She shouldn’t have done that, for straight down below her was the sea—very angry, with those big waves crashing against the cliff’s edge. It was ready to devour her.
She swallowed and tried to stay as calm as she could, telling herself to take a deep breath and not move. If she kept quiet and still, then Kate would realize she wasn’t here and would leave.
She breathed in heavily and clung to the side of the cliff as the rain beat down on her, her whole body cold and wet and her head throbbing with pain. She felt blood sliding down her face and quickly wiped it away. That was when she realized her head was injured, probably from the impact against the rocky wall in the cave.
“Where are you?” Kate sang merrily.
Suddenly Kate appeared, and Sakura jumped in fear.
“There you are.” Kate chuckled. “Just like old times, eh? Now then. Time to die.” She grabbed Sakura by her arm and shoved her toward the edge of the cliff.
Sakura held on to Kate for dear life. “Don’t!” she begged. “You don’t want to do this. You shouldn’t be doing this! Kate, please listen to me.”
“Why? Why shouldn’t I be doing this?” Kate asked. “You’ve ruined my life. I have to get rid of you so we all can live happily ever after.” She shoved Sakura harder, but Sakura held on to the groove of the rock with one hand and Kate with the other.
Then when Sakura thought she couldn’t hold on any longer, Conrad suddenly appeared on the other side, shocked to see her hanging on to the cliff within a thread of her life.
“Shit! Sakura!” he screamed. “Kate, what the hell are you doing? Get away from Sakura!”
Kate, after hearing Conrad’s voice, went into shocked stillness. Then she panicked, and as if she couldn’t help herself because she’d come too far, she shoved Sakura harder, which caused Sakura to lose her grip on the rock.
“Conrad!” Sakura screamed as her body fell back, her hands reaching out to him. Oh, God! She was going to die.
Conrad raced to Sakura, screaming her name. “Sakura!” His hand reached out for her, but he was too late. She was already falling from the cliff and into the ocean below.
“Sakura!” he screamed again, his voice echoing across the sea.
The voice, though mostly muffled out by the rain and the storm, reached the brothers down below. They all turned just in time to see Sakura’s body flying down like a little doll and hitting the water.
Sebastian went cold the moment he saw her body. Darcy screamed his head off. “Sakura!” he howled, his voice loud, his face red, his stomach flipping with dread.
The brothers discarded their surfboards, diving deep into the ocean, and swam toward her. They propelled themselves against the current, their strong arms and
legs working hard against the waves. In that instant, an enormous wave came crashing toward them, steering them off course. Sebastian dove deep under and then emerged again. Darcy was behind him, and then suddenly another wave came and smashed against Darcy, swirling his body about and throwing it off against a rock, scratching his skin and breaking his arm in the process. He fell unconscious immediately.
As soon as it was here, the wave was gone again, and Sebastian swam back to Darcy. He caught his brother and brought him up to the surface. Nicolas, Tristan, Logan, and Hayden finally got to them. Hayden took Darcy and slid him on top of his surfboard.
Sebastian, leaving Darcy in Logan and Hayden’s care, dove back down and went in search for Sakura. Nicolas and Tristan weren’t far behind him.
Please, God, let her be all right, Sebastian prayed. Please let her be all right.
He finally found her and vigorously swam toward her. He caught her by the small of her waist, hugged her against him, and brought her back up to the surface. Nicolas and Tristan came to help. They put her on Nicolas’s surfboard and started heading back. Once they got back to the beach, Sebastian took Sakura in his arms, testing to see if she was breathing. She wasn’t. Oh, shit!
He laid her back down, his heart thundering in his chest and his stomach knotted in dread. Don’t die on me, sweetheart. Don’t you dare die on me! he cried internally in anguish.
He opened her mouth and blew air into her lungs. Then he pressed on her chest.
“Come on,” he said, anguish in his voice and tears in his eyes. He moved to blow air into her lungs again and then pressed her chest. “Sweetheart, Sakura, wake up!” he growled.
Hayden and Logan were fixing Darcy up as best as they could so he wouldn’t bleed to death.
“So much blood,” Hayden said. “Shit!”
“Sakura! Sakura!” Conrad shouted from the distance as he raced down toward them. “Sakura!” He came to kneel beside her, his face pale. “Shit! Sakura!” he cried.
Sebastian continued to do CPR, and then finally, she coughed, spurting out loads of saltwater, and opened her eyes. Sebastian sighed with relief and hugged her tight within his arms, tears rolling down his face. “Sakura,” he whispered against her wet hair.
Sakura gazed at the man who had saved her life once again. “Sebastian,” she whispered weakly. Then she hazily looked around. Her heart was pounding violently within her chest when she saw Darcy lying on the ground not too far away from her, bleeding.
Blood. There was so much blood. “Darcy,” she whispered dryly, her head spinning. Then, as if as she couldn’t take it any longer, she closed her eyes again and fell unconscious.
