They Were My Lover and My Best Friend, Until They Became Each Other’s Chapter 09
My breath caught in my throat. The hand I’d been trying to use to shove Damien away froze midair.
“Damien, you…”
He pressed a finger lightly against my lips.
“I planted enough timed explosives around this villa to level the entire property,” he said softly. “The moment the clock hits midnight, everything goes up.”
Panic slammed into me.
I whipped my head toward the antique clock on the wall.
Five minutes.
There were only five minutes left until midnight.
Damien’s low voice continued beside my ear, calm and terrifyingly gentle.
“I had the Sterling family and the Kensington’s lured somewhere else by what’s left of my people. They won’t find this place anytime soon.”
A chill crawled down my spine.
“Serena,” he murmured, his eyes fixed on me with a twisted tenderness, “come die with me.”
My stomach dropped.
“We promised we’d belong to each other forever, didn’t we?”
I nearly cursed him out right then and there.
At first, his expression didn’t change.
Not until I brought up Theodore.
Not until I laughed in his face and told him he would never measure up to Theodore no matter how hard he tried.
The warmth vanished from Damien’s eyes instantly.
The next second, he shoved me down onto the bed.
The ticking clock on the wall suddenly sounded deafening.
Tick.
Tick.
Tick.
And somewhere beyond the walls, I could almost hear the bombs counting down with it.
Hopelessness tightened around my chest.
Then suddenly, a heavy crack echoed through the room.
Damien’s body lurched forward.
Someone had smashed something against the back of his head.
I looked up in shock.
“Sloane?”
She stood there gripping an iron pipe, her entire body covered in blood. Her face was bruised beyond recognition, and her clothes were soaked crimson.
For a split second, I couldn’t even process what I was seeing.
But Sloane didn’t hesitate.
She swung the pipe again.
And again.
Each hit landed with savage force until Damien staggered sideways. Then she drove her foot into his chest and kicked him off me before ripping the restraints from my wrists.
Damien clutched the back of his head, trying to crawl toward me.
Sloane immediately stepped in front of him.
Her eyes cut toward me like blades.
“Why are you still standing there?” she snapped. “Run. Unless you actually want to die here.”
The clock ticked down to the final three minutes.
I hesitated.
At that exact moment, Sloane let out a cold laugh while struggling against Damien.
“Serena, you idiot. I don’t need your pity.” Her voice shook with pain. “Just go. Consider this my repayment for your baby’s life.”
Damien’s expression turned feral.
“Serena, don’t you dare leave!”
But Sloane held onto him with everything she had, refusing to let him reach me.
I stared at them one last time.
Then I heard it.
Police sirens.
Getting closer.
Without another second to waste, I sprinted toward the nearest window.
The moment I shoved open the second-floor window, I saw Theodore below.
His face was tight with panic.
“Serena!” he shouted. “Don’t be scared. Jump. I’ll catch you!”
I sucked in a shaky breath.
Then I climbed onto the ledge and threw myself out the window.
At the exact same moment, a deafening explosion erupted behind me.
Heat and fire blasted through the night air.
And then I crashed straight into Theodore’s arms.
He wrapped himself around me instantly, shielding me from the force of the explosion as debris rained down behind us.
Only then did my body finally give out.
Everything went black.
When I woke up again, Arthur told me the truth.
Damien and Sloane had both been caught in the center of the blast.
There hadn’t been enough left of either of them to identify.
The two people who had once meant the most to me in this world were gone just like that.
A dramatic, tragic ending.
Nothing left behind.
A dull ache settled in my chest, but the ghosts of my past were no longer enough to stop me from moving forward.
A few weeks later, Theodore accompanied me to visit the cemetery again.
My child’s gravestone had been repaired, the fresh marble glowing softly beneath the morning sun.
After placing down the flowers, I suddenly looked at Theodore.
“You once said you were waiting for me to give you a chance,” I said quietly.
“Do you still want it?”
Theodore froze.
Then joy slowly flooded his eyes.
“Serena… are you serious?”
I smiled and nodded.
The sunlight was warm.
The breeze was soft.
And our story was only just beginning.