Total pages in book: 171
Estimated words: 162003 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 810(@200wpm)___ 648(@250wpm)___ 540(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 162003 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 810(@200wpm)___ 648(@250wpm)___ 540(@300wpm)
“Please, Ryland,” I sobbed. “Please come back to me. You have to come back to me. I just can’t do this without you.”
I heard footsteps, and then the room filled with people I didn’t know. Police and medics rushed in, trying to pry me away from him.
“Please,” I begged. “He’s my husband. You have to save him!”
Mick came and pulled me against him, trying to calm me as they lifted Ryland’s body onto a board and carried him away.
“We have to go with him,” I cried. “We have to go now!”
A policeman ushered us towards the door, and then I paused one last time. I knew I shouldn’t look. But I had to see him. I had to see for myself.
I glanced back at the ground where Alfredo lay with hollow cheeks and lifeless eyes. There was blood everywhere, and his body was riddled with bullets. I had done that. I had killed him. And I was glad.
Chapter Forty
Brighton
Three weeks, two days, six hours, and fourteen minutes.
Ryland laid in the hospital bed, his eyes closed, his hair perfect. I washed it and smoothed it into place for him every morning. His features weren’t relaxed or at peace, and that’s how I knew he was still with me.
The doctors had him hooked up to a bunch of machines. He wasn’t breathing on his own, and they kept trying to talk to me about his brain activity. I wouldn’t listen. I didn’t need them to tell me what I knew in my heart.
I reached for his hand and stroked the tattoo on his ring finger. Even now, we were in sync. That wasn’t a machine. That was something else. Something stronger than medicine or science could ever explain. When he stuttered, I stuttered. When his heart beat, mine would always echo. It wasn’t even love. It transcended love. Ryland and I were something else entirely, and nobody could ever tell me otherwise.
I placed his palm on my chest and let him feel the rhythm beneath my skin.
“Do you feel that?” I asked him. “It still beats for you. I’m still here, waiting for you.”
He didn’t move or give any indication he’d heard me. But I didn’t expect him to. Ryland had been through so much in his life. He needed to rest. That’s all this was. I believed it wholeheartedly. He was just resting.
“I know you’re tired, baby,” I whispered. “But you can’t leave yet. I need you to come back to me when you’re ready. Because I can’t do this without you. I love you so much. You’re my everything. I need my husband, and our baby needs his father.”
Silence.
My calm resolve fractured, the same way it did every day. I missed him so fucking much. I needed him so much. Our baby was due in a month, and I was so scared that he wouldn’t be with me.
I hadn’t left the hospital in days. There was a media circus going on outside, just waiting for a photo opportunity. Ever since the news broke that the crime had taken place in a warehouse owned by Alex Burton, a lot of other information had started to come to light.
I guess Alex didn’t count on Alfredo failing or getting rid of our bodies and the evidence. He was a fucking idiot, and I’d unleashed Edith on him with everything I had. I’d hired private investigators, and Mick was sniffing around for me too. I had every intention of bringing the full force of the law down on him, and even that wouldn’t be enough. I finally understood Ryland’s desire for revenge. It ate at me. It swirled and twisted inside of me, consuming me from the inside out.
I wanted anyone who had anything to do with this dead. I wanted to see their lifeless expressions just like I’d seen Alfredos. I wanted them all buried in the fucking ground.
But I also knew it wasn’t healthy. If there was one thing I’d learned from all of this, it was that revenge and hatred could eat you alive if you let it. And if Ryland were awake right now, I knew he’d tell me as much. He’d tell me to be strong and keep my head focused on the things that mattered, like our baby.
So justice wouldn’t be exactly what I wanted. But there would be justice. I couldn’t sleep until there was. For the things that Robert and Alex Burton had done, all in the name of business.
Brayden told me that Ryland had made an agreement with Robert Burton. Shares of his company would go to Alex in exchange for my life. And upon Ryland’s death, they planned to take over his company. But it was all coming out now, little by little. And the charges were racking up.
I’d never felt more relief than the moment Edith called me and uttered those words. That they had finally been arrested.