Page 79 of Good Girl

Everything slowed down to a fraction of real-time as if I were just watching a movie at half-speed to try and find a specific detail.

Jonathan flinched violently at the intrusion, and he turned, raising the gun as he did so. Derek and Samuel spilled into the lounge, and upon seeing the gun, they both ducked. Derek began diving toward me. Behind them followed two armed officers who saw the weapon and reacted with a shot of their own. The impact of the bullet into Jonathan’s leg made him stumble, and his mouth parted in a scream I couldn’t hear. Samuel crashed into Jonathan, tackling him down to the ground, and they moved as if we were all surrounded by treacle.

Derek’s firm hands landed on my shoulders when he reached me, and I shuddered. His face swam in front of my eyes, twisted with worry, and his eyes widened as he asked me things I couldn’t hear. One hand cupped my face, but I found myself looking past him toward Jonathan even as Derek bundled me against his chest.

Jonathan was on the ground, blood pouring from a bullet wound to the thigh, and he wrestled with Samuel who very quickly got the upper hand. Samuel was soon replaced by the police who swiftly restrained Jonathan, kicked the gun away, and began to treat him.

Through it all, my world was silent like I’d wrapped myself up in cotton. The shock dulled all noise and sensation around me. Derek’s grip was tight, but it seemed so distant that I was sure I could melt through his arms if I focused for a moment. More police spilled into the apartment, and one approached me with a kindly face and a warm, concerned smile. Her mouth moved, but she may as well have been speaking a different language as I couldn’t understand a word of it.

Then Samuel was by my side, and Derek guided my face to look him in the eye.

“Charlotte,” he spoke distantly. “You’repregnant?”

So they heard that, huh?

I nodded once, and suddenly, hot wetness poured down my cheeks. The tears returned as I sank into Derek’s grasp with a choked gasp.

It took a long time for the shock to pass and my world to return to normal. Jonathan had tried to shoot me, he had tried tokillme because he was an obsessive, jealous asshole who simply couldn’t understand the weight of his own incompetence. The bullet had thankfully missed by an inch and now decorated the wall just above the fireplace, but the impact of the shot still sat heavily in my chest.

I had almost died.

I would have had Derek and Samuel not arrived when they did. I gave my statement to two different police officers and then agreed to come down to the station the next day to give a full recorded statement. Jonathan was whisked away to the hospital where he would be held under arrest until he was healthy enough to be transferred to a cell at the station. Derek and Samuel didn’t leave my side until the police had finally left, and then Samuel made us all some tea that quickly changed into three glasses of Scotch.

I clutched mine tightly until the ridges from the crystal pattern dug into my palm, my gaze transfixed on the copper liquid inside. Derek had drunk his in a split second, and he remained attached to my side as Samuel sat on the table in front of me.

“Charlotte?”

I didn’t move.

“Charlotte?” Derek tried again, his gravel voice sweeping through me like an ice wind. “You... you told Jonathan you were pregnant. Is that... is that true?”

“If you just said it to try and persuade him not to shoot you,” Samuel added, “then we understand. Anything to survive. We just...” He paused, and from the corner of my eye, I could see Derek anxiously rubbing his thigh with the base of his glass.

“We just wondered.” Derek continued his movements with the glass, and I finally lifted my head. Glancing between them, they both looked like hell—they’d just dealt with all the worry of not knowing what condition Matt was in, then to come home here to my psycho ex trying to kill me? Guilt sat acidic and heavy on my chest.

“I am pregnant,” I admitted quietly. “That... that was the truth.”

Samuel’s face melted open with shock, and Derek’s lips pressed into a thin line.

Might as well tell them everything now, not like it can get worse.

“I found out a couple of days after we spent that night at the club,” I explained. Once I started talking, I couldn’t stop. “Haley saw me leave the club with Matt, and she worked out that I was sleeping with him. She said some shit about you, Derek, and when I defended you she worked out I was sleeping with you too. I couldn’t come up with an excuse fast enough, and she threatened to report us. She was going to until Paul persuaded her not to.”

Derek’s jaw ticked.

“They said... they said if I didn’t secure their grades then they would report us and I–I... I didn’t want that. I didn’t want you to face another investigation, and I didn’t want you all to lose your jobs. They were blackmailing me and I didn’t... I couldn’t find a way out. I was so scared that when you all found out that they knew, you would cut me loose because I was too much hassle. And I was sick. Turned out what I thought was just stress and too much alcohol was actually a baby.”

“Oh, Charlotte...” Samuel breathed out softly.

I had to keep talking. The moment I stopped, their answer would come and I didn’t know if I had any tears left inside me.

“I didn’t know what to do. I had no one to turn to. I knew I had to hide it because my mother—if she found out I was pregnant outside of marriage, she would disown me.” A dry laugh rushed past my lips. “She’s done that already now, so one less concern.” I was quickly running out of things to say. “When you came to the inn, I just wanted to enjoy one last... one last time together, but then it all went to hell like everything else, and thenJonathan...I didn’t eventhinkabout him but—” A hiccup of emotion burst through my chest, cutting off my last words, and I fell silent, slightly breathless from my small tirade. I clutched the glass tighter as shameful heat prickled across my shoulders, awaiting their reactions.

“You’re pregnant,” Derek repeated quietly.

“I knew that prick was up to no good,” Samuel snapped. “Sure, he wasn’t behind the letters or Matt’s accident, but Iknew.”

“You’repregnant.” Derek’s voice was softer than I had ever heard it before, but I was too scared to look at him and instead focused on my glass.

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