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“No! You leave him alone!” I hang on to his neck however I can, getting my bulging belly out of the way.
As I gouge whatever part of him I can lay my fingers on, he spins around like prey trying to free itself from a predator. Only this predator isn’t his match. He hurls me against a mirror like I’m a useless sack. My back hits the cracked glass and then lands on the floor. Facing the hallway, I realize I’ve been leaving a trail of blood.
Pulsing pain turns to sharp pinches behind my stomach wall. Still, I can’t let that man get to Raffi—whatever the cost. “No, you won’t ever touch him again!” I crawl.
“Raffi!” Nando takes off his belt.
I gather the last bit of my energy to grab his arm. He sets himself free, then turns to me, peering down. My attempt to stop him is jeer-worthy, but I’ve got something else for him.
“You leave him alone!” I lunge at him.
My palm gets bloody, but the piece of broken mirror isn’t in my grip anymore.
Red spreads on Nando’s chest like it’s been dipped in a sink full of dye.
“Fucking bitch…” The curse comes out as a huff.
I meet his eyes—a deep brown I used to admire. He was kind, he was sweet. Until he wasn’t. Was he acting when we first met? How could he have sustained his pretending for years? He always blamed Raffi for his rage, but I think it had always been in him. I was just too late in recognizing it.
Perhaps realizing that I’m simply watching him, Nando reaches out his hand. “Iz… help me…”
I step back, shaking my head. I keep moving away from him until a mighty thump assaults my belly, this time from the inside. Unable to bear my own weight, I sit down, helplessly crying over the blood pooling on the floor between my legs.
I clutch my belly, hollering for Raffi to call an ambulance for me. But the front door bursts open faster than my voice can travel out of the room.
“Iz!”
I turn my head. “Thomas? Thomas!”
“Iz!” My best friend—my only friend, Thomas Matheson—runs to me. His youthful eyes freeze in horror as he stares at the blood pool I’m sitting on. Then he glances at my dead boyfriend.
“Get Raffi and then take me to the hospital,” I tremble.
“Where’s he?” asks Thomas.
“In the car. Did he call you?”
“Yes. Wait here—”
Another voice arrives at the door.
“You brought him with you?” I cry in dismay.
“Iz, no! He must’ve followed me.”
“Jesus, what a mess!” Donovan Fletcher’s lanky form appears at my feet, observing the floor that has turned from red wood to blood red. He stares at Nando’s dead body as his curiosity turns into satisfaction.
His eyes stir with intent as they settle on me. I’ve seen that look before. It’s Don when he’s delighted—when something has happened, and he can’t wait to clean it up.
“Don… take me to the hospital. Please. Or I’m gonna lose my baby!”
Don kneels next to me. “You know how it looks, don’t you?”
His statement compels me to take a second look at the corpse in front of me. Only now do I realize that Nando’s stab wound isn’t the only damage I inflicted on him. Whatever I did when I hung on to his neck, the skin around his Adam’s apple is marred with lacerations.
“Please. We can talk about what happened later,” I beg, then turn to Thomas. “Stay with Raffi. Don’t let him see me like this.”
Don gestures to Thomas to get to my son.
