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“I’m not sure I needed to know that...” She hangs on her words looking at me.
“What is it?” I question.
“The whole zoo thing with Eaton. The day out.” She takes a step forward so she’s standing more central in the doorway.
“Yeah?” I put my pencil down and rest my head on my hand.
“That’s not normal for Eaton. You know that, right? Eaton doesn’t do things like that. He likes routine, and he’s always working. He really doesn’t take days off to go to the zoo, wearing shorts and a t-shirt. He’s changed. He’s growing, and it’s because of you.”
“I know. I see it as well. I think we’re both growing because of each other. It’s hard to explain. The situation we’re in, it’s intense. There’s a lot riding on our relationship, and I think we’ve both been fighting it since the moment I first arrived here. We’ve only just started to realize we don’t hate each other and there’s something more between us.” I look down at the ring that was once his mother’s. It’s been resized to fit me.
“You’ve fallen in love with him?” Lena questions.
I nod. “Yes, I have. I don’t think he’ll ever say it to me in return. There will always be something holding him back because of what happened to his mother. I wish Eaton could allow himself to love freely, but we both know he’s stubborn. He won’t let go of the past.”
“Can you ever truly commit to him, knowing he will never tell you he loves you?”
“It’s a word I will always long to hear from him, but he shows me how he feels in other ways. I couldn’t walk away from him now, even if I wanted to. He told me that once he’d tasted me, I consumed him. It’s true the other way around as well. He’s inside me, physically and mentally. And I’m beginning to suspect there’s a part of him inside me in another way as well. Lena, there’s something I need to tell you.”
She lifts the mug of coffee in her hand to her mouth, but before it reaches her lips, it falls from her hands to the floor.
“Lena!”
I’m up on my feet but freeze to the spot when I notice the blood seeping through the front of the t-shirt she’s wearing. She grabs her stomach, trying to speak. Her mouth gulps like a goldfish out of water as she falls to the floor.
Behind her stands Eaton’s father, gun in hand.
“I can’t think of a better woman to shoot. Moaning about her father raping her since she was a child. She should have just accepted it. Her life could have been so much worse. If I’d had my way, I would have sold her to the highest bidder, one of those with the weird sexual fetishes. She’d have known real degradation then. He steps over her to enter the room. Several other men are behind him. One of them grabs hold of Lena’s legs and drags her out of my sight.
“Hello, Shelby.” Eaton’s father looks down at the book I’ve been studying. Derision crosses his face as he picks it up and throws it against the wall. “Eaton was always soft. He has too much of his whore of a mother in him. She was my biggest mistake. I should have married someone who could give me strong, loyal children and more than one. She was a weak woman in body and in mind. At least she died young, so I didn’t have to put up with her for too long. She made the mistake of having an affair with your father and mother, so I had to put a bullet in her head. She should have known better than to fuck with me.”
My hand comes to my mouth at his confession. It wasn’t my father who killed Eliza Armstrong, it was Eaton’s. Her husband.
I start walking backward, trying to get away from him, but my body hits into a wall.
“I gave Eaton a chance. You must admit that. I hoped he would prove me wrong, but of course he didn’t. I presented him with a woman, you, on a plate. All he needed to do was marry you, fuck you, and impregnate you, but no, he couldn’t even do that. It doesn’t surprise me, really. His mother made him soft. What happens now is all her fault. I’m going to enjoy raising my child to be the monster I am. I’ll make sure there’s no weak-willed mother to install a soft heart into my son and heir this time.Ourchild will be everything I need him to be. He will rule this city and destroy anyone who gets in our way.
“O-Our child?” I stutter as Eaton’s father closes in on me. He wraps his hand around my neck and squeezes.
“Your father and mother betrayed me. Eaton’s beloved mother betrayed me. The three of them planned to run away with you and Eaton, but I got to them first and have been looking forward to this moment ever since. I don’t need my son to get my revenge. I will marry you. I will abuse you, and I will cut my child from your womb as soon as I can. Your last memory will be seeing me triumphant, holding our baby, before I shoot you directly in the center of your pretty little forehead.”
He lets out a loud laugh, and it almost has me vomiting in fear because it sounds so dark and evil. My survival instincts kick in, and I try to knee him in the groin but miss. Despite his age, he’s stronger than me, and I’m slapped hard across the face, not once but twice. Loud sounds ring in my head, and pain explodes from my left eye as my legs go weak.
“Stupid bitch.” He forms a fist and sends it flying directly into my face.
The pain is unbearable.The metallic taste of blood fills my mouth. My eyes roll back, and I feel my consciousness drifting away from me. I fight it. I fight to stay alert.
“I’m going to enjoy this so much,” he says with a smirk. “I’m going to rip your pussy apart. I’m going to make the last few months of your life even more hellish than the first eighteen years, and there’s nothing you can do about it, because you’re mine.”
The last word out of his mouth is my undoing. It’s Eaton’s word for me, not his.
The corners of my world close in, and darkness claims me.
30
EATON
I’ve never driven so fast in my life, and as we race up the driveway to my house, I see my father’s car already parked in the driveway.
