between us.
And the next few seconds happened in slow motion.
Kate pointed the gun in my direction. Becky reached for the gun and forced it upward. They struggled, fighting for it.
I couldn’t get to them fast enough.
A shot rang out.
And then silence.
Chapter 43
Becky
The sound was deafening. Ear-splitting.
All I could hear was the ringing in my ears. All I could feel was the pain in my side as I tumbled to the ground.
But for the first time all day, relief flooded me.
Because I had the gun.
It was a toy, which I now had in my hand. It had never been real. The fear of this inanimate object was almost comical—almost because it wasn’t real.
The ear-splitting gunshot had come from Ben. He’d emerged from the store, seen us struggling, and shot his gun into the air to stop our fight.
My head fell to the right, to the cold concrete rough against my back. For a brief second, my focus was on the clear night sky and the stars twinkling above me. I took a breath and exhaled slowly. The grandeur of the expansive sky could almost give off the feeling as though this were a normal night, but it was far from it as I sat up and witnessed Ben and Charles pinning a struggling Kate to the ground.
They’d used rope to tie her hands, and once Ben had her pinned against the wall, Charles ran toward me.
In the next second, I was in Charles’s arms. He’d dropped to the ground and pulled me into his lap and buried his head into my neck, shuddering as though the adrenaline was dying down at a rapid rate and he couldn’t control his emotions.
“I’m sorry.” My tears flowed like a river down my face. I was saying sorry for so many things. I was sorry for putting his children’s lives in danger. First, the pool incident and now with Kate. I was sorry for putting him in this situation, almost putting his life in danger too.
My life had been a string of unfortunate events, and now, those events had trickled into Charles’s life.
A wetness touched my neck, and I knew he was sobbing too. And it broke me because he was so strong and brave, and now, he was breaking down because of me.
I’d caused his pain and misery.
I needed to leave. Leave and never come back. That was the only way to ensure that Charles would live the full and happy life that he was meant to have.
“I-I hate that I put you in this situation.” I’d never loathed myself more than I did right now in his arms. “It’s all my fault. It’s all my fault,” I repeated on a loop, in an utter state of shock. Because here he was, comforting me, grateful that I was alive. “When I think of what could have happened …” I shook my head and breathed in and out to calm myself. I couldn’t go there.
Everything was fine now, and everything would be in the future because I would ensure it.
He held me in silence, as the world around us erupted in chaos. The cops had been called in, and within minutes, the parking lot was filled with police vehicles and flashing red and blue lights.
Full-body shakes took over me as it all sank in, and Charles lifted his head, his eyes lined with tears. And then he kissed me. Hard and desperate.
I didn’t deserve any of this. His affection. His love. None of it. But I melted into his kiss anyway because if this was the last time I was ever going to kiss this man, I would greedily take it and savor it and commit it to memory.
When he pulled back, his hand cupped my cheek, and he stared deeply into my eyes and uttered the words I was unworthy of, “I love you, Becky Summers.”
The tears gushed out harder, his figure a blur behind the waterfall trailing down my cheeks. “You can’t.”
“What do you mean, I can’t? It’s too late. I already do.”
The smile that surfaced should have made me feel better, but it did the opposite.
“I hate myself, Charles. I hate what I did to you, to Mary, for putting you in this situation.”
He rested his forehead against mine. “It’s not your fault.”
“How can you possibly say that?” I pulled his hand down, giving me space to breathe and think clearly. “It is my fault. All of it. I’m bad luck. I’m jinxed. Everyone who comes in contact with me—”
He kissed me