Page 62 of Coup De Grâce
And it would be bloody.
The moment the elevator doors opened and I stepped off onto the third floor, my stomach dropped out. Standing right in front of me was none other than the very woman I despised. Except, she wasn’t looking at me. No, her eyes were on Jason, and they were shimmering with tears.
In a flash, he was around me, engulfing her in his muscular arms.
Shock. Pain. Anger.
Longing.
My breathing stuttered in my chest at the sight of him holding her so tenderly. So lovingly.
Stumbling back a step, I felt a strong hand wrap around my bicep, steadying me when I felt like I would fall over at any second. I was steered around the sight and maneuvered to a room where I could break down in peace. At first, I just stood there, my breathing coming in short gasps as I tried to work past the pain of seeing that woman.
Then that pain lanced through my body and everything crumbled inside me. I tried desperately to rein it in, to not break when that’s all I really wanted to do. But it was impossible. There was no stopping the tidal wave of emotions that bubbled up inside me and spilled over.
A desperate squeak left my lips before the most horrifying mewling sound left my lips. I clasped a hand over my mouth, trying and failing to stop the flood from spilling out. Before I knew it, I was on my knees, breaking—shattering—into little tiny pieces.
Arms came around me, holding me tight. I buried my face in the masculine scent, wishing it was my husband as I gripped his shirt tight and cried so fucking hard.
“He left me,” I sobbed, my tears spilling all over his shirt.
“I know,” Jack whispered, rubbing my back soothingly.
“He left me forher. He didn’t even say goodbye. He didn’t?—”
My tears cut me off, refusing to let the rest come pouring out. I was too devastated, too broken to even yell at the heavens that my husband was gone. But Jack didn’t move. He sat there with me, rubbing my back and murmuring that he was still here for me.
He was, but he wasn’t the man I wanted.
No one could replace what I had with Rafe. No man could take his place and ease the hurt constantly growing inside me. Time was not healing these wounds, and I had a feeling nothing really would.
“I know it hurts,” Jack murmured. “I know it fucking hurts so bad, but Libby, Izzy is not the reason he’s gone.”
I barked out a watery laugh, tearing myself from his arms. “She’s the reason he left me. From the very start, she was his mission!” I shouted hysterically. “It didn’t matter that he loved me. It wouldn’t have mattered if I needed him. The only thing he thought about was her!” I cried out, slamming my fist against his chest. “She’s the reason he’s dead!”
I knew I was hysterical. I could feel everything in me breaking into tiny pieces, but there was no stopping it. The rage that had built since the day he died only grew worse as time passed. There was nothing anyone could say to ease the pain, but especially not trying to dismiss Isabelle’s part in all of this.
She was the reason for everything.
S he was the reason my husband chose not to return to me.
She would always be the reason he was dead.
It took morethan a splash of cold water on my face to clear the puffiness and tears from my face. As I stared in the mirror at the woman looking back, I didn’t recognize her. Not even a little.
Where there once stood a woman who had it all figured out, now there was only a shell—the woman inside was long gone.
“You can do this,” I murmured, refusing to let this break me right now.
I had to focus on what was coming, what still needed to be done. Though I didn’t know what the rest of my life would looklike, I knew the only way to have that long life was if I got rid of my problem once and for all.
“This is as good as it gets,” I muttered with one final look in the mirror.
Stepping into the hall, I joined the others in the conference room, taking a seat at the back so I wouldn’t disturb the beginning of the meeting.
“Fuck,” Lock hissed, running his fingers through his long hair. “How’s your family?” he asked Johnny, stopping his pacing only to get all the facts.
“Fucking pissed,” Johnny grunted. “But at least the house didn’t go up in flames this time.”
