But Darren said nothing as he stared down at me, then held out his hand for me to take.I stretched up my arm that wasn’t trying to conceal a wound to place my hand in his, but I had a feeling it wouldn’t matter.
Pulling me up to stand, he yanked me away from Camaro, who quickly stood back up and began to sniff the floor again, searching for more danger.
“I’m fine, I’m okay,” I tried to reassure him.But the fury emanating from his eyes told me everything was so not fine.I could feel the heat from his body simmering against my skin like the dark warning of a smoldering volcano ready to erupt, and you couldn’t reason with a raging volcano.“Really, I’m fin?—”
But he cut me off mid-sentence to grab for my other arm and wrenched it away from my ribs, revealing the small blood stain in my clearly torn dress from where the bullet had grazed me.
Fuck.
“I’m okay.Everything’s okay,” I reassured quickly, but my voice came out like a desperate plea instead, fear paralyzing my tongue.
Darren said nothing.He just stared intently at my wound while his eyes blazed with the kind of wrath that only I could muster—the kind that brought pain and brutal retribution.But I would endure it for Camaro if that was what I had to do.
“I’ve warned you for the last time, Jaden,” Darren said, his voice dark with menace and disappointment.“But you’ve left me with no choice.”
He then turned toward Camaro, lifted his gun, and pulled the trigger.Twice.
“NO!”I screamed as I rushed for her, but Darren held me back as I watched her yelp and then slip over the edge of the yacht, swallowed up by the dark water.“NO, NO, NO!CAMARO, NO!”I continued to scream, fighting against Darren with all that I had so I could dive into the water and find her.But the yacht continued its voyage, leaving Camaro behind to disappear into the deep depths of the ocean.
I fought Darren until I collapsed in his arms, unable to catch my breath as panic seized my entire body.Hot, angry tears dripped down my face in ugly globs of despair while my heart ripped itself into shreds at the bottom of my sickened stomach.
“How could you do that?!”I screamed in anguish.“How could you do that to me!”
Darren released me only to fling me into Sloane’s arms, who held me upright.
“Because you refuse to listen!”he roared back.“I’ve warned you time and time again to stop risking your life for a dog, and you refuse!Even as you carry our child inside you!And if this is what it takes to get you to prioritize your own life and the life of our baby, then so be it!”
“I fucking hate you!Do you hear me?I hate you!”I screamed, attempting to rip myself from Sloane’s arms so I could claw Darren’s eyes out.“You don’t even deserve a fucking child!It’s better off dead than havingyouas a father!”
Darren’s features went from menacing to instantly cold as ice.Before I could say another word, his hand whipped out and snatched my jaw, preventing me from uttering another syllable.“That sounds like a threat, little wife.Is that how you want me to perceive that?”
He was countering my threat with his own, the very same one that he made before if he ever suspected me of trying to trigger a miscarriage.But what difference would it make if he locked me up for the rest of my pregnancy now?I was already dead inside.How a fetus could thrive inside a corpse would be Darren’s problem to figure out, not mine.
“I am not going to watch you torturemychild,” I spat through my clenched jaw.
Darren huffed a laugh before releasing my face from his grip.“You don’t have to watch anything, Jaden.If you refuse to participate in motherhood as expected, that’s your choice.I sincerely doubt you’ll be able to resistourchild anyway, but if you insist, then fine.I grew up without a mother and prevailed all the same.Our child will too.”
I felt my chin and my heart hit the floor in absolute disbelief.
“Happy fucking birthday, princess.”And with that, he walked away to leave me a shattered mess that melted to the floor, wails of misery scorching up my throat as my glossy eyes searched for a sign of hope in the blackened water.
10
VOLATILE
Istared off into the ocean, the cool waves biting at my bare kneecaps as my feet dug into the wet sand below.All I could think about was diving off into the water, swimming away until I found my dog's remains.But with Sloane standing on the shore watching me, I knew she wouldn’t let me get very far.
And then I decided I didn’t give a shit anymore, and dove under the water anyway.
Kicking my feet, I swam for the surface and began to make my way through the water as fast as I could.I didn’t even care that the salt water was making the graze on my side sting like a bitch.I wanted to find my goddamn dog.
“Jaden!”Sloane called.“Jaden, come back!”
I could hear her dive into the water, swimming aggressively to catch up to me, but she was no match for my level of internal destruction and sabotage.No one was…except Darren...
Self-hatred propelled me through the waves, the guilt and shame keeping me afloat despite the overwhelming mountain of grief offering to drag me to the ocean floor.It was where I belonged for what I’d done, for my own stupidity.
It was my fault my dog was dead.Darren had warned me repeatedly, threatened her hide several times, even electrocuted her to prove his word.And still, I didn’t listen.