Page 143 of When Hearts Awaken

Anthony races forward, but Charles wheezes. “Stop. I got this. I’m going to kill this motherfucker myself.” A muscle tics in Anthony’s jaw, but he steps back, his hand curled around his gun.

Ian throws out a punch, hitting Charles on the chest, but Charles flips him over and delivers several quick jabs.

Spittle flies out of Ian’s mouth. “Your father didn’t give a shit about anything or anyone, including me, so I couldn’t go to him for help! I would’ve ended up with nothing. The Parisian position would’ve solidified my place in ballet history and I would be set for life. You wouldn’t understand. You’re the golden prince of the fucking family. You—”

“You brutalizedher!” A chill befalls Charles’s features as he raises his swollen fist again. He delivers a loud blow across his uncle’s face.

Smack.Ian slides to the ground, blood seeping out of his nose, his eyes rolling back.

“You made her life a living nightmare!”

Smack.

“You hurt the woman I love!”

Smack. Smack. Smack.

Charles doesn’t stop, even as Ian stops struggling on the floor.

Tears pour down Charles’s face as he delivers hit after hit, a violent madness overtaking him. Blood splashes onto his face, splattering onto his dress shirt and his golden hair—a brutal vision of betrayal and bloodlust. “I looked up to you! You were like my father. How could you do this? Howcouldyou?”

Maddy cries in her corner, her hands covering her ears.

Charles continues hitting his uncle, each blow violent and vicious. Loud sobs rack his body as he avenges me. “I’m going to kill you,” he chokes out, his face wet with tears. “How could you hurt her like this? How could you?”

My breath hitches, my heart threatening to escape my chest, as I see the man I love devolving into a mindless beast, intent on revenge even as grief and torment carve an unhealable wound inside him.

It’s tearing him up inside. He’s killing himself with each blow he rains on his uncle.

I see it in the way his powerful frame shakes, the anguish in his voice, the soul-shredding pain and cutting betrayal conveyed in his words.

A new blistering agony carves through me.

I can’t let him do this for me.

I can’t let him kill the man he loved—the man who cared for him like his own. I hate Ian Vaughn with every breath inside me, but I can’t let him steal Charles’s life as well.

And he would if Charles kills him. Charles would never recover.

It would destroy him.

Tears stream down my face, and I finally find the strength to move. I fly to Charles and wrap my arms around his back, trying with all my might to stop him from delivering blow after blow to his uncle.

“Stop! You’ll kill him. I don’t want you to kill him for me. I don’t want his death on your hands!” I cry, my vision blurry. “Please, stop for me, Charles. Please! Let him rot in jail for what he did. Don’t do this for me.”

A guttural roar rips from his throat, and Charles shakes in my grasp. I curl my hands around his face and force him to look at me.

Those beautiful sky-blue eyes I love, filled with so much pain. I want to take it all away, even as the horror of my past slams into my mind repeatedly.

My fingers trembling, I wipe the blood from his face, his hair, his lips. I dip my forehead against his as he chokes one ragged breath after another.

“I-I’m so sorry, Taylor. For what he did to you. For—”

“Shhh.” I close my eyes, focusing on the sounds of his rough breathing, my heart splintering in half for the man before me. “It wasn’t you. You couldn’t have known.”

An agonizing groan rumbles from his chest, and more tears slide down my face. “I don’t blame you. I love you, Charles Vaughn. The past is in the past. We got him now.”

Sobs continue to rack from his throat as he collapses in my hold.

---