Page 58 of Scandalously Yours

“Yes, I do,” she told me, then started waving the gun around again. “You’re the stupid whore that stole my Kristopher from me.”

I wanted to point out that she was calling the kettle black. He had told me about her infidelity over the years. “I didn’t steal him from you. The two of you were sep—”

“Shut your whore mouth up, bitch,” she snapped as she steadied her hands while keeping the gun aimed at me.

I had been around weapons my entire life, and I had even learned to shoot when I was younger. In addition to my own personal experience around them, I had been a doctor long enough to know what a gun like the one she was carelessly waving around would cause in the wrong hands. This woman hated me. I could see it burning in her eyes. My concern ratcheted up more, but I had to stay calm.

It was easier said than done because I wanted to charge at the bitch and knock the gun from her hands. I would then pound her face into the pavement until she agreed to finally set her ex free. This deranged woman was the only one standing in the way of our happily ever after.

I might’ve felt bad about stealing her husband’s heart, but the truth of the matter was that the two had been living separate lives apart for months before I had ever even met him. If I had thought there was a single shot of them reconciling, I would’ve spared my own heartbreak and let the two be together. He hated her, though. It wasn’t the kind of emotion that people said in the heat of the moment. It was deeply seated. I had no idea what caused him to feel that level of emotion over her, but I knew that he did. She’d once mentioned secrets that he had, but I had assumed they were lies along with everything else. They might still could be, but there could also be something there.

I slowly lowered my hand, hoping to be able to call 911. I had an emergency call button on the lock screen of my cellphone so I wouldn’t even have to pull it out. If I could just get my hand inside my purse, then I could...

“Keep your fucking hands where I can see them.”

I raised the other in front of me in surrender, but she motioned for me to the do the same with the one resting atop my purse. I quickly raised it, all the while cursing inwardly that I hadn’t been able to make that call.

We stayed locked in this pattern for what seemed like several minutes when it likely had only been seconds. My pulse was racing and the pressure in my chest had me breathing heavily. I moistened my bottom lip with my tongue, then chewed nervously on it.

“We both know that you’re not going to shoot me. You—”

She smirked again. “Are you sure of that?”

I shook my head. She was right. If she was on drugs the way I suspected that she was, there was no telling how far she would go. I was honestly getting more worried the longer this went on. I couldn’t help the tears springing to my eyes, or stop the ones that started to fall. I couldn’t believe in a span of a half hour that I went from lying in Kristopher’s arms to being held at gunpoint by his unhinged ex. I’d just gotten him back, and now, I might lose him, and my life, in the process.

“C-can’t we just talk about this.” I needed to try to appeal to her, even though I had no idea how. I might have to lie, and anticipating having to do that, I sent a prayer up not be struck dead if I did.

“We’re beyond talking. I tried to warn you what would happen if you continued to fool around with my husband, but you didn’t listen.”

I wanted to point out that he wasn’t her husband in the sense of the word that mattered, but it would likely end badly. “I’m sorry. I didn’t listen then, but I will now. Just let me go and I’ll make sure no one—”

She let out a maniacal laugh. “You’re not only a whore, but stupid as hell to boot if you think I’ll trust you. I showed you what he was, and who, but you still opened your legs for him.”

If she meant the stuff at the hospital, she had to know I had been made aware that it’d all been a lie. Even if Kristopher had been lying when he mentioned being at the hospital all day, I had seen the logs and heard another doctor talking about the surgery that the two had done together. She was a psycho and delusional. I tried to move my head to see if I could spot Kris. Surely, he had to be out of the café by now. He likely thought that I had left after my call, and if he did, that meant there was no one to save me. My gaze darted from one side of her to the other. Oh my God. That had to be what happened.

I reminded myself to breathe, even though I wanted to hyperventilate. My obvious despair and wandering eyes had evidently clued her in on what I was thinking and who I was waiting for. “You stay where you are with your hands above your head or else, I’ll shoot you right here.”

My pulse thundered in my ears. She backed up while keeping her weapon trained on me the entire time. If she would turn for just a few seconds, I could get to my phone. It was as if she knew that because she never took one eye off of me even when she reached the sidewalk. Seconds later, I heard the chime of a door and knew it had been the café Kristopher had gone into.

Seconds later, I heard his voice. “What the hell are you doing, Hayley? Where is Alessia?”

I could hear the fear in his voice as he assumed she had possibly already hurt me. It didn’t make me feel better because unless he could overpower her and take the weapon from her grasp, he would end up at her mercy just like me.

“Come find out for yourself,” she told him as she motioned at me with the gun.

He stepped into the alleyway and I saw his relief when he saw me unharmed. I tried to plead with him to do something or tip someone off, but she saw my eyes move and she shot in my direction. I fell to the ground and it took a few seconds after the initial panic started to realize I hadn’t been shot. My purse had fallen to the ground and my cellphone, which had been at the top became separated from it, and both were just out of my reach.

“Are you fucking crazy, Hayley?” he asked as the two cups of coffee he had bought fell to the ground.

“Get in there with her,” she ordered him.

I saw the hesitation, and I knew he was trying to think of a way to get the gun out of her hand, but she turned it from me on to him. “That was just a warning shot. The next one is going to have someone’s brains all over the walls. Think wisely on whose blood is about to be spilled.” He hedged his way into the alley, and she looked at his pocket. “Give me your phone right now, or I’ll shoot her in the kneecap and make her suffer before I shoot where you stand.”

He went to say something, but then I saw him take out his phone and toss it in her direction. Hayley motioned for him to join me, and the only hope I had left was hinging on whether anyone who happened to be on the streets heard something and called the police themselves. One of the things I loved so much about the city could very well be our downfall. Manhattan was so heavily populated with not only people, but cars, and on any given day, the sound of one backfiring could be mistaken for a gunshot.

My heart was literally thudding in my chest, and the panic started to well up inside of me. Hayley had nothing to lose. She was about to lose her husband, her children, and everything that a Titan’s wife was entitled to. Her freedom wouldn’t matter. Kristopher moved over to me and he was checking me for any sort of wounds, but other than possibly a skinned knee, there would be nothing for him to find.

“I’m okay,” I assured him, then watched him heave a sigh of relief.

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