Goddammit!
“Good,” Lucio responds. “And you won’t move a muscle because you want her to live, don’t you?” he tells me.
I grind my teeth so badly I might chip a tooth. “Fuck you. Let her go.”
He chuckles. “Well, isn’t this a nice surprise? You can’t kill me because you want your mother avenged … and she’s so goddamn smitten she can’t bring herself to take that away from you.”
What?
My pupils dilate.
Stella is in love with me?
“You will let me pass, and I will keep her alive,” he tells me. “Now step aside.”
I can’t let him get away with this. I can’t put her through thatagain.
Enough.
I hold up my knife, aim, and throw.
Right for the eye.
It penetrates his skull and enters his brain, and his entire body caves in on itself. The knife he was holding her hostage with clatters to the floor along with him.
The end.
I rush to my wife’s side and grab her before she collapses. I pick her up and hold her in my arms while her tears begin to flow.
“It’s okay. I’m here. You’re safe now. Breathe.”
I hold her tight as she sinks further into me, and for a while, we just stay there while her lungs keep expanding like crazy.
“Breathe. Just breathe,” I repeat. “Just breathe slowly for me. That’s all I’m asking. Will you do that for me, Tesoro?”
She pushes her nose into my neck and sucks in oxygen through her nostrils, as if my scent calms her, and after a while, the breaths become less labored and more controlled.
“That’s it. You can do it,” I murmur.
“Is it over?” she murmurs into my shoulder.
I nod. “He’s dead. Gone. Forever.”
She cries a bit more, completely overwhelmed with what happened, and I totally understand. He was a monster, and I betrayed her trust when I pushed her away in order to protect her. In fact, I’ve only ever thought about my own needs and fully neglected hers.
“He tried to …” She can’t finish her sentence.
Her pain makes my knees buckle, but I have to stay calm and be as steady as a rock for her.
“I’m sorry …” I murmur. “I should’ve been there for you, and I wasn’t. I’m sorry I’ve been such a bad husband, and I’m sorry I stole your freedom away.”
She hiccups, and the pause that follows feels eternal. “I’m sorry too,” she mumbles back. “For trying to poison you.”
I chuckle. “I guess we both did things we aren’t proud of. But it’s all in the past now …”
She leans back to look at me with concern. “But what about your mother? The revenge you wanted?”
“He got what he deserved.”
