He Jilted Me at the Altar. I Married His Enemy by Midnight. Chapter 11

He Jilted Me at the Altar. I Married His Enemy by Midnight. Chapter 11

Damian wanted to lock me in a tower I watched him fight the urge in real time

You’re not going Thursday J

“I’m going Thursday. I put my hands flat on his chest. With your security With the police notified With a different car, a different route, a different time-but I am going to my baby’s appointment, because if I start letting that man decide where I can exist, I will be back in that gray dress at my mother’s dinner table forever I’m done being managed by fear, Damian. Yours included.j

He stared at me for a long moment.

Nine years ago, he said finally, I thought I couldn’t possibly have imagined you better than you were

His jaw tightened. Both cars. And I ride with you the whole way.J

Thursday, 9:40 a.m. New route, new car, two security vehicles. Damian’s hand around mine the entire drive,

his thumb tracing my knuckles, his eyes never leaving the mirrors.

We never made it to Fifth.

The delivery truck ran the light at Concord-not at us, ahead of us, sealing the intersection-and Julian’s gray sedan came out of the parking structure on our right like something launched, not driven.

I remember fragments. Damian shouting my name. His seatbelt already off-when had he taken it off-

his whole body twisting across the seat, arms caging me, wrenching me toward him so his back was to the

impact. The world going sideways in a shriek of metal. Glass turning to bright snow.

Then stillness. Engine tick. Someone’s horn jammed on.

Damian.) My voice worked. My arms worked. My baby-I could feel my heart, feel everything, he’d taken it

all, he’d wrapped himself around me and taken all of it- Damian. Damian, look at me j

He was slumped against the crushed door, and the side of his white shirt was turning red with a speed that made the world go small and silent.

His eyes found mine. Unfocused. Then focused-checking me, scanning me head to toe, and even bleeding through his shirt the first thing out of his mouth was:

The baby-you’re-?J

“We’re fine, we’re fine, you idiot, you took your seatbelt off-J

Faster… that way. One corner of his mouth moved. Did the math.j

‘Don’t you dare joke Don’t you dare-HELP! SOMEBODY HELP US

Security was already ripping the unor

open, sirens somewhere, coming closer, not fast enough. His blood was on my hands His hand was in my blood-slick hands, and its grip was getting softer, and I felt every wall I’d rebuilt since the cathedral come down at once-not breaking this time Opening.

Hey Hey. Stay I pressed my forehead to his. “You listen to me, Damian Cross. Rain ends Rain always

ends. You stay for the part after-you don’t get to give me those words and then leave, that’s not that’s not

how the story-J

Aria. A whisper. His eyes were closing.

‘Damian, please-j

“Worth it, he breathed. Nine years. All of it. Worth-J

His hand went loose in mine.

The paramedics tore him away from me, and the last thing I saw before they closed the ambulance doors was his blood soaking through the yellow blanket they’d wrapped him in-yellow, of all colors, yellow-

and then I was standing alone on shattered glass in the middle of Concord Avenue, hands red to the wrist,

screaming his name.