Our past felt like a lifetime of only good times, but even those end––humanity’s irrevocable truth.
I don’t know what I expect––some grand epiphany. Some memorable wisdom. It’s nothing but silence and the slow thud of my pulse weakening.
Did she really want to shoot me?
I am certifiably crazy. No doubt.
She wanted to, and she did.
But…Shut the fuck up with your but. Let me die in peace.
I can’t believe I am arguing with myself now.
Someone else will get her, that antagonistic, pesky inner voice seeps through the mental chaos. Just like that, enough life returns to make me roll onto my side and attempt to get up.
Oh, no, fucker. She is mine. Even if she doesn’t want to be. Fuck it. I’ll chain her to my bed if I need to. She will fucking listen to my side of the story.
Even if she wanted to kill me, it would change nothing, but if she didn’t, I will use it to my advantage. She fell in love with me once more. What’s a third time? I’ll succeed a hundred times over.
I scramble to my feet, my vision blurry as I brace against the wall. The world spins, but I focus on taking one step after another. No one can know what happened here or who attempted to kill me. It would sabotage all my well-laid plans, and I can’t have that.
Zara will calm down and return home, or I am bringing her back by any means necessary. This woman is so stubborn that kidnapping will probably be required. Pondering the best strategy, an idea lights up in my brain, and I smirk. She won’t pass up the chance to see her supposed enemy take his last breath, but first, I must survive this.
In my car, I slide into the passenger seat, aware I can’t drive, red instantly painting the leather seat, my fingers leaving bloody prints on the handle and phone as I call my cousin.
She answers on the third ring, her voice sounding sleepy. “Vian?”
“I need your help. I will drop my location, and you will take me to the family doctor. No fucking hospital. Do you understand?”
“Oh my god, what happened? Are you hurt?” She bursts into tears. It’s too soon after she lost her father to lose me too, and I am trying to survive here, but the more she keeps me on the phone, the slimmer the chances.
“I’m just dying here, but yeah, let’s continue this fucking chat,” I groan while I press down on my wound.
The phone slips from my hand, my vision turning black.
A light slap wakes me up, and I see my teary-eyed cousin. “I thought you were dead.”
Me too, considering the beautiful dream I had.
Noemi slips into the car, glancing at me more than at the road. Every traffic light grows increasingly blurry, strength leaving me as I teeter on the edge of unconsciousness. I am trying to survive a bullet here, and my cousin attempts to kill me with her driving.
“Eyes on the road, cuz,” I groan through another bout of dizziness.
“Even when you’re almost dying, you’re bossy.”
The question is on the tip of her tongue, and she eyes me, scared to ask it.
“She found out some stuff.”
Noemi sighs, “Some things are not meant to be. Maybe all that happened was supposed to keep you apart and not together.”
“I make my destiny.”
“And look what that brought you,” she snickers.
“Don’t blame her.”
“Then you better remain alive,” she snaps.
