Page 377 of As the Rain Falls
“I’m not pretending anymore! What did you… You’re a monster!”
There’s a flash in his eyes, something sharp and crazed.
Dangerous, even.
“Now, let’s not get emotional over this. Come home with me, Cassandra,” he asks, reaching a hand out for me. “You don’t know what you’re saying anymore.”
Silence stretches like a wire between us before I answer.
I can’t contain the sobs.
My head hurts too bad.
“No!”
Nathaniel’s jaw tightens. I watch him hesitate, glancing at the sky before pulling his other hand from his pocket.
“You’re really leaving me no other choice.”
I barely register the glint of metal before a gun is raised at me and fired.
The bullet ricochets against the cement and flies to the opposite direction, and a deafening crack echoes off the walls of the alleyway. My shaky hands fly to my chest protectively as I stumble back in terror, but the bullet lodges in metal, or concrete, or nothing at all.
He missed.
On purpose.
Heart lurching, breath catching in my throat, I yell.
“Are you insane?”
He barks, voice raw and shaking with something far uglier than just anger. “You think this is a joke to me?”
“I think you’re scared!” my voice cracks. “And you should be! I’ll tell everybody what you did to me!”
“Don’t fucking test me today, Cassandra! Don’t youdarewalk away!“ His eyes flicker back and forth, and his grip on the gun is tightening. “After everything I’ve done for you?”
“You lost the right to call me family the second you put your hands on me!” my voice wavers, listening as the volume of the music upstairs slowly dies. “What else did you fucking do besides that night?”
His face contorts into something ugly.
He won’t tell me.
Not as long as I get angry at him because of it.
“You know I won’t let you be with him.”
Behind him, I catch a flicker of movement.
It’s Beckett, stepping out the front door.
Antony is only a few steps behind.
No, no, no.
Don’t come out here.
But my brother doesn’t notice, and I swallow hard to mask the relief I feel deep inside, praying that he won’t turn around. Nathaniel straightens, jaw clenched and shoulders squared, like he’s gearing up for something worse. It brings my attention back to him.
