Page 208 of Nanny and the Beast

“Adam?” I say sweetly.

He stops walking when I take a step toward him.

“I need to tell you something,” I say. “When I first met you, I had real feelings for you. I never felt that way for anyone.Anyone.”

“Me neither,” he replies, staying right where he is.

“But when I saw you,I realized you were lying to me the whole time. Our whole relationship was based on a lie,” I say. “But I know now that it doesn’t matter.”

“I never wanted to hurt you, Emma,” he says. “You made me do all those things to you. I just wanted us to be happy.”

He’s a smart man, but he’s only a man.

Like everyone else in the world who has felt obsession, he believes what he wants to believe. And what he wants to believe right now is that I still have feelings for him.

He’s only a few feet away from me now. I stop walking.

“Come to me, Adam.” The words echo against the ceilings.

It’s like having a puppet on a string. He moves closer toward me, not taking his eyes off me. When he’s about three feet away, I jump out of the way.

As expected, he lunges toward me.

A loud thud follows.

I squeeze my eyes shut and hope that luck is on my side tonight. After a beat, I cautiously open my eyes again. The giant chandelier fell right on top of him, squishing him like a bug.

All this time, he was so focused on me that he didn’t notice the chandelier that was about to fall.

I walk toward him.

He’s dead. He’s really dead.

Finally.

“You deserve so much worse for the hell you put me through,” I say. “I hope you rot in hell for the rest of eternity.”

I notice that his phone and wallet had fallen out of his pocket. I grab them quickly and rush toward Helena’s room. I kick the door open. The smoke follows me inside.

“Helena, wake up,” I say.

I whirl around when I feel tendrils of heat against my back. There’s another loud thud from inside the house. The very foundation of the mansion is falling apart now.

A cloud of fire erupts before me.It enters the room like an unwelcome guest, filling my lungs with more smoke.

Helena is wide awake now.

I point toward the window. It’s the only exit we have left.

My vision blurs at the edges. I’ve been breathing the toxic fumes for too long. My lungs feel like they’re on fire.

I want to keep fighting, but my body has reached its limits.

My vision goes black.

44

KLAUS

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