Page 209 of Choosing You

“Enough of this. Get in the study. Both of you.”

He waves the gun at us, forcing us into the small room that’s just off the foyer.

“You’ll never get away with this,” I tell him even though I know it’s not true. He’s rich and powerful. He probablywillget away with it. “The police will do an investigation. They’ll know you did this.”

“The police won’t even have to investigate this, Jade. It’ll be obvious what happened here.”

“What are you talking about?”

“Down at the police station there’s already a report on file that clearly states that you were cheating on Garret with a young man named Blake Edwards. And that Garret was arrested for nearly beating the boy to death. When the police see what’s happened here, they’ll assume Garret was still distraught over your infidelity and his jealous rage led him to shoot you and then himself.”

“But that’s not true. I wasn’t cheating. And Blake dropped the charges. He—” I stop because it’s no use arguing with Sinclair. It won’t change what’s about to happen here. It’s obvious the man is completely deranged. He’s about to kill his own daughter and he almost seems happy about it.

“You’ll get caught, Royce,” Garret says. “You’ll never make it off the property. We have security guys right outside. How did you even get in here? Unless you . . .” He looks at me and we both realize that Sinclair’s already killed both of them.

“You’re finally catching on that I’m not kidding around. Now get over there.” Sinclair motions Garret toward the middle of the room. He orders me to stand a few feet away.

I can no longer think. My mind is convinced that none of this is real. It’s just a movie scene playing out and I somehow got the lead role. I wake from my fake world when I hear Garret talking again.

“Royce. Don’t do this. I’m begging you. I’ll take her far away. We’ll move overseas. You’ll never see or hear from us ever again.”

Garret looks at me with sheer desperation. I can tell he’s searching his mind for a way to save us both, but there’s nothing we can do. We’re trapped in that room with the gun on us.

We both look back at Sinclair. He holds the gun up, aiming it directly at me.

Garret dodges in front of me as the shot goes off. He knocks me to the ground as another shot fires.

It’s so loud. So very, very loud.

Then, for a brief moment, it’s quiet.

Garret is on top of me. I lift my head to see Sinclair face down on the floor. Then I hear footsteps running into the room. It’s Mr. Kensington, holding a gun in his hand.

“Garret! Jade! Are you okay?” He sets the gun down on the bookshelf and kneels down next to us.

“Yes,” I manage to answer. “Garret, get off me.” He doesn’t move. “Garret.” I push on his shoulder and see blood pouring from his shirt. It’s running all over me.

“No!” I scream. “Help him!”

Mr. Kensington carefully pulls his son off me, laying him on his back.

I quickly sit up. “Do something! Call the ambulance!”

His dad rips open Garret’s shirt. Blood is pouring out from the upper part of his chest just below his shoulder.

“Do something! Please! Hurry!” My whole body is shaking, my heart racing so fast I can only take shallow breaths.

Mr. Kensington looks at me. He’s very calm. How can he be so fucking calm?

“Jade, I need you to pull yourself together so you can help me. Garret’s losing a lot of blood. I need you to hold your hand here and apply pressure.” He takes my hand and places it over the spot where the bullet went in. “I’m going in the other room to call for help.” He gets up and walks out.

I do as Mr. Kensington says, pressing against the upper part of Garret’s chest. Blood covers my hands, pooling between my fingers. There’s so much blood. Too much blood. And I can’t make it stop.

“It’s gonna be okay.” I say it even though Garret can’t hear me. Because he always says it to me and now that he can’t, I’m saying it for both of us.

I press even harder against his chest but the blood just won’t stop. Why won’t it stop?

“You said you’d stay with me forever if I wanted you to, Garret.” I keep talking to his unresponsive face, tears streaming down my face. “So you better not leave me. Because I want that. You and me. And whatever this is we have together. I want it forever. I want it so bad.”

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