Page 123 of Twisted (Never After)
I suck in a breath.Is he talking about me?
“Yeah, everything went to plan. Darryn and Ian handled it. It was messy but… I know it’s dangerous, Mom, but I told you everything is fine. We don’t need Darryn or Ian now, and we definitely don’t need Sultans anymore. I’ve got this lamp, and I’m telling you, it’s worth enough. Let me just take care of things here, and I’ll come grab you.”
His words hit me in the chest, and I stumble back a few steps, my insides curdling and withering away like dying leaves fallen from their branches.
We don’t need Sultans anymore.
Rushing back inside the cottage, my heart beating in my throat and my stomach tied in knots, I scramble to grab the lamp, not willing to let yet another person take advantage of me.
I may have lost everything, but I won’t let him take this from me too.
Andfuckhim for playing me for a fool. For all these years? God, the thought of how gullible I must be punches through my stomach, making nausea churn in my gut.
Reaching the end table, I stumble over my feet and grab on to the silver case, the metal rough against my fingers, and then I dive into the pocket of Aidan’s bag, searching forsomething. Money or anything that will help me get out of here and far enough away to safety.
My fingers brush against cool metal and my heart stutters as I wrap my hand around it and bring it out of his bag.
A gun.
Oh my god.Whoishe?
“Princess.”
His voice jolts me out of my daze, and I spin around, seeing him standing in the doorway, his eyes wide as they flick from the gun in my hand to the lamp in my other. He walks in slowly, his hands held out in front of him as he closes the door and moves toward me.
“What are you doing?” he asks.
My arm shakes violently as I raise the barrel and point it at him, tears blurring my vision. “Was any of it real, Aidan?”
He tilts his head, acknowledgment that I overheard him filtering through his gaze. “Let’s just take a second here.”
“Answer me!” I yell, my frayed insides unraveling until there’s nothing left.
He swallows, placing his phone down on the table slowly. “You have to understand, Yas…my mom and I, we’ve lived our lives with nothing.”
My nostrils flare from the burn building behind my eyes, because finding out that the man I thought I loved for most of my life was just using me to get my fortune is the icing on top of this fucked- up cake.
My father was right when he told me to be wary.
“So this whole time, everything between us was just what? You using me to get my fortune?”
He licks his lips and moves closer. “I care about you.”
And with that, I’m done.
Done people- pleasing and living for others. Done giving a fuck about anything other than the sorrow that’s shredding apart my soul until it withers and turns into an unrecognizable lump of charred remains.
“Put the gun down, princess,” Aidan coos, walking up to me until the barrel is pressed against his chest. He runs his hands over mine gently. But then they tighten and he bends my wrist until it feels like it might break. I let out a harsh yelp and stumble, but I tighten my hand around the gun, even as he tries to wrench it from me.
“I don’t want to hurt you,” he huffs out as he fights me for control.
I lose it, flinging myself forward and bashing my head against his face, a sharp pain radiating through my skull as he rears back, blood pouring from his nose.
My arms shake as I pull up the gun and aim it at his chest.
“You don’t have the power to hurt me anymore, Aidan.”
And then I pull the trigger, feeling nothing as he falls to the floor.
