Sucking in a deep, shuddering breath, I shake my head, offering my husband a small smile.
“Ineedto be the one to do this.”
“Do what?” Elizabeth screeches, but we ignore her, keeping our eyes on each other, and Ringo holds up a silencer attachment for the gun.
“No! No!” Elizabeth shrieks as I take it and screw it on, while Nurse Thatcher falls off the bed in an attempt to try to get away.
“Thank you for keeping Bobbi alive,” I say to Elizabeth, and she howls in agonising pain. They are cries I remember well. Cries I felt rip from me not so long ago, and now that pain is something sheneedsto feel, so I continue. “But the pain of losing her was real. For weeks, Imourned her. I killed in revenge for her. My entire being was rewired because you stole her from me.”
Stepping up to Daniel’s side, I fist his hair, reefing his head back, his fear-filled eyes locking with mine as he sobs.
He doesn’t beg for his life, though.
Not anymore.
He knows his time is over, and so does his mum.
“I’ll see you in Hell, Daniel,” I snap before releasing his hair, ignoring his mother’s screams, and pull the trigger.
21
The heart wrenching sobs from Elizabeth Stone stopped about ten minutes ago and Abbey hasn’t taken her eyes off the mouth of the passage since. There’s so much regret visible on her face, and I just know there’s pain warring inside her head, but everyone here knows Daniel needed to die.
Abbey isn’t reacting to his death, but she knows the type of heartbreak Daniel’s mum is suffering.
Wassuffering.
Mex, who has been guarding the bedroom door we left Elizabeth in with her dead son, pops his head out from the hallway and asks, “Want me to check?”
Glancing over at my wife, her cheeks pale even more, and she starts chewing on her damn thumbnail again.
I wish she had let me shoot Daniel and take that burden off her. My wife’s heart is too good for this shit.
I know she’s strong, but fuck, I just want her pure soul to remain intact. My concern about that hasn’t changed. But I know I need to let her do what she feels she needs to do.
“Yeah. Check it out,” I grunt to Mex, dragging my eyes away from my Angel. “And make sure the nurse understands how things are going to work,” I mutter, and Mex nods, disappearing back into the hallway.
Caroline is huddled at the end of the hallway in the corner, Vender watching over her to make sure she doesn’t try something stupid. Like run, or try to attack one of us.
I start slowly pacing, needing to keep moving as we wait, but not even half a minute later, Mex reappears and gives me a nod.
When my eyes connect with Abbey’s, there’s a moment of vulnerability in them before it disappears, and she nods, as if she’s silently telling herself it’s okay, before she stands.
“She used the knife we left?” she asks Mex, who nods.
“On her wrists. She uhhhh… died holding on to her son.”
My wife’s caramel eyes dart to mine as they fill with tears, and I reach out, dragging her to my chest and wrapping my arms around her.
“It’s okay, Angel. It’s what she wanted.”
“I know,” Abbey sobs quietly. “And I get it, but Elizabeth was nothing but a pawn in a nightmare she didn’t know she was a part of.”
Giving Abbey a squeeze, I press my lips to the top of her hair, breathing in the fruity scent of the shampoo she’s been using.
“She didn’t want to live in a world without her child. It was her decision,” I remind her, even though we were the ones that gave her the knife to use.
She could have tried to use it on us and escape, but her mind was set the moment her son died.
