50 Billion Reasons to Leave You Chapter 02

50 Billion Reasons to Leave You Chapter 02 Love That Nearly Killed Me
I slipped my phone back into my pocket.
Only one thought mattered now.
I had to get out.
Sometime after midnight, I pried open the basement door.
When I finally got into the car, I turned and looked at the mansion one last time.
I had taken care of that house from top to bottom. I had handled every detail and held the whole family together.
In the end, there had never been a place for me there.
The streets were quiet. I thought I could leave without anyone noticing.
Then we rounded a curve.
A Maybach swung across the road and blocked us.
The car stopped so suddenly that my head slammed into the window.
Before I could recover, Cherine stormed over, grabbed me, and ripped me out of the car.
I tore my arm out of her grip.
At that exact moment, my driver panicked and hit the gas.
The car shot straight toward me.
Cherine lunged at me, knocking us both onto the shoulder.
The car smashed into the Maybach with a deafening crash.
A long gash opened across Cherine’s arm. Blood poured down to her fingertips.
She didn’t even seem to notice. She kept dragging me farther from the wreck.
Then the air filled with the sharp smell of gasoline.
A second later, the Maybach exploded.
Flames roared into the sky.
Cherine stepped in front of me and used her own body as a shield.
She clenched her jaw against the pain and stared at me with bloodshot eyes.
“Ryan, I’m never letting you leave me!”
For one dizzy second, I remembered the kidnapping seven years earlier.
The men had tried to assault her.
I had thrown myself at all nine of them and fought until I couldn’t stand.
They stabbed me 18 times. My blood and intestines spilled across the floor.
Cherine held me tight and broke down sobbing.
“Ryan, please, stay with me. Don’t leave me!”
I had built my whole life around those words.
I helped her take control of the Whitmore family. I helped turn her into one of the biggest names in Maplewick’s business world.
No matter how ugly things got, I stayed by her side.
Now every sacrifice I had made felt like a sick joke.