Page 35 of Unhinged Obsession

Annabelle.

A very pregnant Annabelle Davenport.

She looks exhausted and annoyed, which I totally get, because I feel the same way.

Her normally polished appearance has given way to tangled hair and wrinkled clothes, and there are dark circles beneath her eyes like she hasn't slept in days. She's clutching a folded piece of paper so tightly that it's crumpled around the edges, her knuckles almost white from the pressure.

She stops a few feet away from Beau's stall, looking from me to the note in her hand before swallowing hard. “Your bodyguards seem to think I’m behind these notes, but if you haven’t noticed, I’ve been a little busy growing a human inside of my body to be playing middle school games.”

I look up at Elijah, whose expression is made of stone as he stares her down.

I stare at the folded note in Annabelle's hand, my stomach twisting so tightly I almost forget to speak. “Are you getting the notes too, or is that one of mine?”

She rolls her eyes at me and says, “Of course I’m getting them too, but I thought it was these three absolute rocket scientists trying to scare me,” Annabelle snaps.

“You don’t have to be a total bitch, Annabelle. None of us know who is doing it or what they know. We…” Paris pauses to swing her perfectly manicured hand out to indicate our little friend group. “Didn’t say anything to anyone. That leaves you because it’s clearly not Jonathan.”

“Get off your literal high horse,” Annabelle snaps at Paris and tosses the note at Noah and Benjamin’s feet before stomping out of the facility as quickly as he possibly can in her current state.

“Did you really kidnap a pregnant girl?” I ask, my eyes bouncing from Noah to Benjamin.

Noah throws his head back, rubbing his hands over his face. “Why does everyone keep using that word? We just made her come here so we could talk.”

“I don’t think she’s doing it. She definitely didn’t hurt Paris. She could barely get in the car to drive her down here,” Ben says, huffing.

“Go take her back, and don’t yell at her. She’s mean as hell, but the walk down here is hard enough, and I’m not heavily pregnant,” I say to Noah. As the words leave my mouth, I feel Elijah shift his hand down my abdomen to rub over my stomach.

As Noah stomps out to be an unwilling hero, Elijah leans down and kisses the side of my head near my ear and says, “Yet. You’re not heavily pregnant yet.”

I look up at him and see that he’s completely serious, and that seems to turn my insides to mush.

“We need to wrap it up; the Ceremony is soon, and we need to make sure everything is in place in case…” Ben trails off, probably not wanting to put into the universe what could happen tonight if things don’t swing in our favor.

Bradford is dead, but that doesn’t mean that the Elders haven’t decided to pawn me off on someone else.

“Come on, let Paris and Ben close up shop here, and I’ll walk you back so you can get your dress on,” Elijah tells me softly, holding his hand out for me to take.

After we’re walking for a few moments, I keep looking straight ahead when I say, “I thought your dad was going to kill you.” I hate that my voice breaks the way it does. I try to be strong, to not get worked up over things that we’ve been conditioned to believe are okay. It’s not like I’m not aware of what The Society is capable of doing, but at some point everyone has a breaking point.

Mine was seeing that dagger pointed at Elijah’s chest.

Elijah stops walking abruptly, pulling me to stand in front of him and tipping my chin up with gentle fingers. “I didn’t want you to see that,” he says, pressing his lips together for a moment.

“Did you know that was going to happen?” I ask, because I need to feel like I understand everything that’s going on. “I know what our plan is tonight, but I had no idea that before every Choosing Ceremony there is a sacrifice.”

“There isn’t, but there could be.” Elijah pulls me to his chest and dips his head to kiss me on the forehead. “We thought they might pull that card because Caiden tipped us off that my father was nosing around, asking questions about us visiting Caiden.”

I just look up at him expectantly, waiting for him to continue.

“Ben has been looking for anything in the archives that might help us get out of the Society, or at the very least, paired with each other. He came across the sacrifice and realized that it had only been used in recent years when Elders needed a way to get rid of an initiate who was causing problems. The tradition was done away with a long time ago.”

“I won’t ask who stabbed Bradford, because it’s probably better that I don’t know,” I tell him. “But I assume that you knew someone would intervene?” I want to know how much of that meeting was a coincidence and how much was a strategic plan by the Moretti triplets.

“Nothing was a surprise,” he says cryptically, taking my hand in his hand once again. “And no one can prove anything. Not only was everyone masked, but we’re also identical to most people and share the same DNA.”

I breathe out through my nose, and I realize how tense I am. “And at the Choosing Ceremony, you’re sure I just need to show up?” I feel like I need to be doing more to help.

“Yes, baby. I promise you that I won’t let anyone hurt you,” he tells me, and as I look up into his bright blue eyes, his expression changes to something dark. “I’ll fucking kill anyone who touches you in any capacity.” he reaches up with his free hand and brushes his knuckles across my cheek in the most reverent way. “You’re mine, little dove. No one else has the right to come near you, breathe the same air as you, and especially not touch you. I don’t want them even looking at you.”