DECEIT (B723) by Hazel Grace (ebook reader for surface pro .TXT) 📕

“You have a big mouth, Emmy. I’m not going to be interrogated by my wife.” He swings his weapon again at me, but he’s predictable and slow, and it’s easy for me to dodge.

“Your wife? I’m not your fucking wife, asshole!” Recognition dawns on him, like he’s convinced himself so many times that I was, then believed it. He talks about it here and there, but we’ve never gone into depth.

Thank fuck.

“I’m sorry,” I leer through my clenched jaw. “Did you think we were going to live in the 1950’s? I wasn’t allowed to give my say?”

“Not at all,” he glowers. “But I see the condemning and judgy look in your eyes.”

“I think it’s safe to say we’re done.” I begin to slowly back away, on the ready for him to jump me again.

“Done?” Alexander looks flabbergasted that I would even voice such a fucking thing. “I love you, Emmy, what makes you think I’d let you go?”

“Oh, great—“ I shake my head and back myself towards the door. “—you’re delusional. This will be fun.”

“Emmy—“ Before he can even finish, I’m turning and starting for the door. I try to keep myself steady so that I don’t fall, but I can hear Alexander right on my toes and the sharp pain that hits my shoulder.

I know he got me again, but I don’t have the time to stop.

I clear the kitchen and swipe my cell off the island but drop it when Alexander’s hand knocks it out of mine.

His arms loop around my center, and I thrust my elbow back, hitting him in the ribs but it doesn’t stop what he’s already planned in his head.

His knife comes down and through my stomach before a strangled and panicked cry leaves my lips.

I try to grab his weapon to save all three of us but he’s strong. I can feel the stab wound at my side screaming in pain as I clamp down on my teeth.

This is life or death.

This is my babies and me.

For the slightest of seconds, my mind goes to Bishop and how he told me to get rid of him.

It fleets the moment I catch the bottom of Alexander’s chin when I jerk my head back and get him to halt his next pendulum swing on my torso.

I whirl around with closed fists and hit anywhere on his body that will semi-inflict him with what he has just done to me.

My height works against me, and not only that, but now I’m the size of a growing house with not just me to protect but two unborn babies who don’t deserve to be here with me.

A handgun shows up in Alexander’s left hand, and my immediate attention falls to it.

It’s my first mistake of many tonight.

While trying to hit it out of his hand, he moves around with the knife and knicks my side. He comes back to stab one more time before pistol-whipping me in the face.

My vision blurs, but I try to stay fastened to consciousness. I need to because no one is fighting for my children but me.

“The moment I said I was falling in love with you,” Alexander snides through a satanic tone. “Is the moment you signed on to being mine forever. And not only did you give me two babies but a future.”

“Fuck you,” I mutter weakly before my focus begins to diminish.

Oh, no, no, no. 

I see Alexander smile again.

“I will.”

“Hold on, Ems.” A large hand crushes mine as my body jolts, sending a sober shot of pain throbbing through my frame. I moan involuntarily as I crack my eyes open to blinding white light above. “We’re gonna make it, hold on.”

Hold on. 

I blink and turn my head to the right, finding Mills hovering above me, his face twisted in transparent fear and anguish.

I remember him showing up at the house, but I don’t recall much after that.

His fingers brush away hair from my forehead as he still tightly clutches my hand.

“We’re gonna have babies,” he says, trying to sound excited. “You’ll finally get to meet them.”

My brows furrow in another wave of discomfort as each inhale and exhale causes a tight pain to reside in my belly.

Alexander stabbed me.

The babies.

“Mills,” I whisper, my voice strained. “I need you.”

He nods his head furiously. “I’m here. I’m going to call—“

“No!” I shake my head and squeeze his hand tighter, terror ripping through me as much as the pain. “Listen to me…I don’t have much time.”

“Ems, you’re not going to die.” His boyish features harden along with his clenched jaw and I wish I could tell him to chill. “You are not going to—“

“Shut up, and listen.” My stomach clenches at the strain I just put on it from trying to make my voice sound more assertive. “We’re going to need to move quickly.”

“Okay…what do you need—anything.”

“Where is Alexander?”

He shrugs. “I don’t know. You didn’t tell me. Do you want me to—“

“Sir, we’re going to need you to leave,” a female voice chimes in between our vital conversation. “Unless the young lady wants you to stay.”

“We need a minute.” My voice doesn’t come out as anything but muttered through my anguish and the kicks from my babies.

Something is wrong, and they’re telling me. 

“A minute,” Mills says louder for me. “Two minutes.”

“But sir—“

“You’re wasting my two fucking minutes,” he snaps. She must leave because he bends forward a little to get closer to me. “What do you need, Lou Boo?”

“I need you to be the father on the birth certificate.”

His face contorts. “You need me to do what now?” I hit him with an exasperated and exhausted look. “Um…Ems, I’m not the daddy.”

“I need you to be.”

“Uh…” He averts his eyes from me, looking for something before returning. “We’ll talk about that later. We need to get you—“

“Two minutes, no time. Alexander tried to kill me. He can’t take the kids.”

Mills’s grayish-blues expand then narrow. “What the fuck?” His cell appears in his hand next, and I squeeze his palm tighter, gaining his focus again.

Blackness