I love Knight; I might be blind to his faults.
“No. I lied to try and keep him away from you.”
I exhale all of my pain in that moment.
“That kiss destroyed me. Even though I never loved Knight, it hurt. Not as much as losing Gideon, but I can’t forgive you for it either.”
I nod, and then I see the flash of metal.
I hold my hands up cautiously. “Abri, relax. We are just talking.”
“Abri, what are you doing?” Knight asks from the hallway. His hands are up as well, showing caution. But his eyes are all fear.
“You both hurt me so much. And yet, I was the one punished. I lost my baby,” Abri cries again.
Shit. What did I do? This isn’t going to end well.
“You will find happiness again. You have money now. You have a company you love. You can adopt a baby or find a sperm bank and have your own. You don’t need a man to be happy. Or you can find a man and fall desperately in love. You can have anything you want, Abri. I want you to be happy. I just don’t want to spend my life wondering if you will come after us,” I say.
Abri raises the gun, and I turn to Knight. We both freeze, unsure what is going to happen. I love you, I mouth to him.
I love you too, he mouths back.
It probably isn’t the smartest thing to do in front of Abri. It makes her pain worse and gives her more reason to shoot us, but if this is my last moment on this earth, I want to leave it loving Knight.
I turn back, and instead of the gun pointed at my head, Abri holds out the gun for me to take. I do, hesitantly.
She looks at me. “I won’t come after you. I won’t think of you again after today. I’m starting a new life. This is my surrender. Be happy. Just know that Ace isn’t a saint.”
“Thank you. We won’t press charges. We won’t take our evidence to the police unless you force us to, but know if either of us ends up hurt, this entire conversation will be played in front of a court.”
“It won’t come to that,” Abri says.
I nod and watch as she walks to Knight. “I’m keeping everything. You still deserve to suffer some for what you did, you asshole.”
“You deserve to be happy, Abri. For what it’s worth, I loved you and would have loved you forever if I could. And I’ll love our time together because it gave me a brief moment with our son.” Knight pulls Abri into a tight hug, and they both cry into each other’s shoulders.
I walk out of the apartment giving them a moment alone together. I take the gun and put it in my back pocket. I’ve never held a gun before and will never hold one again. Hopefully, Knight or Cole knows how to get rid of it.
I take my phone out of my pocket and stop the recording. I’ll keep the evidence, but I don’t think I will really need it.
Knight comes out of the apartment a few minutes later. “Thank you,” he says.
“For what?”
“For forcing us to talk and saving my life.”
His lips crash down on mine.
“I love you, Knight.”
“I love you, pretty girl. Let’s go back to Cole’s place.”
I smile. “We can, but first, I need to tell you what happened that night. The whole story. Abri is on her way to healing. Now I need a chance to heal.”
24
Mila
Five Years Ago
“You are grounded, and that’s final,” my father’s voice booms through the whole living room.
My mom sits idly by on the couch, not bothering to give any input. I know she hates my boyfriend as well. But she won’t even bother to talk to me. She hates him and thinks I’m already a lost cause. Her efforts would be wasted, she thinks, so why bother?
But my father, he’s too stubborn to ever give up. He wants to control me. What color my hair is, what I eat, when I sleep, where I go to school, and what I do. Even who I date.
“What am I grounded for? I didn’t do anything wrong?”
“Your hair is the color of the sky, your clothes are ridiculous, and as I’ve already said, you aren’t going anywhere with that boy!”
I glare at him. He’s stubborn, but so am I. I won’t give up so easily.
“Fine, I’ll just stay locked away in my room forever.”
I storm