Walking into my bedroom, I realize that I don’t even need to change clothes since I stayed in my PJs all day. I slip into my bed, the one I rarely sleep in. I usually spend the night in one of the guys’ rooms, but they still wanted me to have my own room.
My head hits the pillow, and a wave of exhaustion washes over me. Who knew someone would be tired from doing nothing all day?
With my eyes closed and the heavy blanket wrapped around me, sleep finds me quickly, dragging me into a dreamless slumber. Before my brain can shut all the way off, the sound of glass shattering rips me back to reality. My eyes blink open, and for a moment, I think maybe I’ve dreamt it.
Shoving into a sitting position, I toss the blanket off. I don’t know how, but I instantly know something is wrong. The rational part of my brain tells me to calm down, maybe Banks just dropped a glass. But my gut tells me something else, that something terrible is about to happen. It’s only a feeling, but it’s strong enough to be taken seriously, very seriously.
All the exhaustion vanishes as adrenaline takes over, pumping through me with a furious fire. Holding my breath, I listen to every single noise.
When I hear the shattering of glass again, I know my gut feeling was right. Ripping the door open, I start down the hall, my feet slapping against the wood floor in a flurry.
“Stay upstairs!” Banks yells from somewhere on the first floor, clearly hearing me. “Go into your room and lock the door.”
For a moment, I just stand there, my feet cemented on the floor. I want to listen to him, I want to be safe, but how can I leave him down there all on his own. What if Xander sent more guys? What if… No, I can’t think like that.
I need to… what should I do? Oh, god. I can feel the air entering my lungs, but I’m not breathing, not really. The air inside them stills. Then it hits me. I need to call the police. Patting myself down, I realize quickly that I didn’t bring my phone up with me.
Shit, it’s still on the kitchen table.
More glass shatters downstairs, and I find my feet moving without thought. No…wait… that wasn’t downstairs. I turn around and look in the direction I think the sound came from. I think this time, it came from upstairs. Someone broke a window up here. Before I can start to move again, I see a figure appear at the end of the hallway.
Shelby.
She looks so different that I almost don’t recognize her. Her normally straight, shiny hair is uncombed and messy. An unfitting gray jumpsuit is covering her slender body, and as my gaze moves down her, I notice she’s not wearing any shoes. The socks on her feet are nasty, covered in dirt, and mud and have holes in them. But what makes her seem like a completely different person isn’t her get up.
It’s her eyes.
The look in her eyes is nothing short of bone-chilling. Cold, detached, unhinged… batshit crazy. How can this be the girl who’s been my best friend all my life?
“Hello, Harlow,” she greets, and even her voice sounds different, disturbing. I take a small step back, ready to make a run for the stairs to get away from her. But when she reaches around to her back and pulls out a black object from her waistband, I freeze. My heart stops. My lungs deflate. My entire life shatters.
A gun… she has a gun.
“Shelby, please…” I lift my hands, palms up. “Please don’t do this,” I beg, but she only smiles at my pleading. She smiles as if this is some kind of joke to her.
Banks must hear me, because the next thing I know, he’s barreling up the stairs calling out for me.
“Don’t fucking come any closer,” Shelby yells. “If you do, I’ll shoot her. I’ll do it right now!”
I don’t look back at Banks, but I can hear his footsteps falter somewhere behind me.
“Okay, okay, I won’t move,” Banks answers, his voice abnormally shaky. A stark contrast to his usual cocky, unfazed demeanor.
Shelby sneers, “This is all your fault, you know? Your dad and I could have been happy. I could’ve had it all. He loves me, and the only reason we can’t be together is you.” She points the gun at me as she speaks.
“What do I have to do with you and my father’s relationship? If I have a say in it, I’ll never see him again. You can have him.”
Her pale cheeks flush with anger, “It has everything to do with you!”
“Every time I was with him, all he wanted to talk about was you. What you were doing? Who you were seeing? He was never interested in what I was doing. All I wanted was his attention. I wanted him to see me, and the only way I can have him is by getting rid of you. Then everything will be perfect.” Her smile is frightening and makes the blood in my veins turn to ice.
“Please, Shelby! I’m pregnant,” I sob, cradling my stomach.
“I know,” she snickers. “The plan didn’t go as expected.” She shakes her head and points the gun at the ground.
“What do you mean?”
“How do you think you got pregnant in the first place? I exchanged your pill for placeboes. You’ve been taking nothing more than sugar candy,” she admits, shocking the hell out of me. My mouth opens, and for once, I’m speechless. She… she did this?
“Why… why would you do that?”
Shrugging her shoulders, she says, “I thought if you got knocked up by one of the Bishops, your father would finally disown you. I guess that didn’t work out. So, I’m going back to the original plan I had. It sucks a little, but killing you is all I can do now.”
Shelby raises the gun again, and my mouth opens, a scream on the edge of my tongue. Then the doorbell rings. With the gun still pointed at me, she tilts her head, looking at me with shock and anger in her eyes.
“Expecting someone?”
“I-I don’t know...” I really don’t know. Were we expecting someone? I can’t think straight with that thing pointed at me and my life on the line.
No one moves for a moment, and then the doorbell chimes once more. Then that same impatient person starts to pound on the front door, the sudden, loud noise making me jump.
“Harlow, I know you’re in there. Open up!” My stepmom’s muffled voice carries through the heavy front door and silent house. “I’m not leaving until you open this door and let me know that you’re okay!”
Why the hell is my stepmom here?
“Well, I guess you better let her in. I can go ahead and kill two birds with one stone… Or two people with one gun,” Shelby cackles.
“If you hurt her, I swear to god you’ll wish you were never born,” Banks threatens.
She rolls her eyes, “Go get the door, Romeo, or I’ll shoot her right now, and you won’t be able to do a thing to stop me.”
Listening as Banks descends the stairs, I start to shake; fear and panic bubbling up.
“You don’t have to do this. We’ve always been friends, and we still can be. Just put the gun down,” I do my best to keep my voice even, but Shelby can see right through me, and instead, she takes a step closer, her eyes darkening.
“Maybe a long time ago, we were friends, but not anymore. Not ever again,” tears pool in my eyes because even as crazy as Shelby is, as lost as she is, I still yearn for that person that I once knew. The person who was a friend.
I can hear someone climbing the stairs, and when I peek over my shoulder, I find my stepmother at the top of the landing. What the hell is going on? My body is caught in the crosshairs between two crazed women.
“Shelby, don’t be stupid, drop the gun. Harlow, everything is going to be okay.” I can hear my stepmother speaking, but I don’t feel the emotion in her words. It’s not going to be okay. None of this is okay.
“Me?” Shelby laughs like an evil villain, and my stepmother strolls right past me, closing in on her. “I’m not stupid. I’m not the one who doesn’t even realize her husband is in love with someone else. He loves me, not you, you old hag.” I can see the glint of metal peeking out of my stepmom’s sleeve, the edge of it red with blood, droplets falling casually to the floor.
Slowly, I bring
my hand to my mouth to stop the scream from coming out. Banks. Oh, god, she didn’t. She wouldn’t.
“Ha, then why is he with me? Why did he call the cops on you, and have you sent to a loony bin?” It’s like I’m watching a nightmare play right before my eyes. I want to look away, but I can’t. Shelby raises the gun to my stepmom’s head, but it doesn’t seem to faze her.
“Huh? It wasn’t because he loves you?”
“Shut up!” Shelby yells her voice cracking, agony pouring out of her.
But my stepmom doesn’t listen, she just continues nudging her closer and closer to the proverbial edge, “You were nothing more than convenient pussy for him. He needed you to keep an eye on Harlow and spreading your legs for him; that was just an added bonus for him.”
“Stop, just stop!” Shelby screams even louder this time, the sound ringing in my ears like a siren. Lifting her hands, she presses them against her ears, and like a hawk, my eyes remain on the gun that’s still in her hands. With it pointed away from us, now is our chance. Then it happens.
The moment the gun isn’t pointed in my stepmom’s direction anymore, she lunges for Shelby. Everything happens so fast; I can hardly make sense of it all.
A sob escapes my lips as I helplessly watch as the woman I’ve always known as my mother drives the already bloodied knife into Shelby’s chest.
For a moment, I can’t breathe, I can’t move, I can’t think. Time slows, and all I can do is watch Shelby die. The girl who has been my companion for most of my life stares back at me. A knife stuck in her chest, blood seeping from the wound, soaking through her gray jumpsuit. Her wide eyes bleed into mine, her face pales, and her eyes go blank.
I can see the exact moment all life leaves her. One second she is standing, the next she crumbles to the floor, landing in a heap. I don’t know why, but I can’t stop staring at the lifeless form on the floor. I’m unable to understand or comprehend anything that is happening. This can’t be real. This has to be a dream.
A nightmare.
I know I shouldn’t, but my eyes move on their own from her crumpled body, and to her eyes. I gape at the vacant look there, somehow waiting for some kind of spark to return. For her to wake up… but it’s too late. She’s gone, her entire life, all hopes, and dreams, every memory she ever had… gone. Just like that…
“Oh, come on. Don’t act like you actually cared about her,” my stepmother says nonchalantly, utterly unfazed by what she’s just done.
“You-you k-killed her,” I stutter. My voice coming out just as shaky as I am.
“So what? She deserved it. Truthfully, I should have killed her a long time ago,” she admits. Bending down to where Shelby’s body is lying on the floor, she pries the gun out of her lifeless hand. “And I should have killed you when your mother was pregnant with you. I apologize for making you go through all of this just to have it end with the same result.”
Shock is all I feel. Fear. Anger. Sadness. I don’t feel any of those emotions in that moment. Not like I should. It’s like I’m having an out of body experience.
She killed my mother.
“Why do you look so surprised?”
Swallowing thickly, I push everything down. If I’m going to survive, I’m going to have to come up with a way to escape her.
“Why… Why did you kill her? What did she do that would make you want to kill her?”
“She took your father from me, that’s what. He was always supposed to be with me. We belonged together, and she ruined it all. Just like now, how you ruined everything. I should have killed you with her, but your father and I found out early on that I couldn’t have children of my own, so I thought I could raise you. I thought he would love me even more for it.” A darkness overtakes her features, “I actually thought I could love you, but just like your mother, you turned out to be nothing more than an inconvenience.”
An inconvenience?
The word cuts through me like a sharp knife. So many emotions flood me all at once that I can’t decide which one is greater… hurt, anger, or disappointment. I’m so disappointed in myself. Disappointed that I let this woman be part of my life for so long, that I didn’t see the kind of person she really was. All this time, I thought my father was the biggest monster, but as it turns out, there was a worse evil lurking.
I want to cry, to scream, to destroy the woman in front of me. I called her my mom… the woman who took my real mother from me. The walls around my fragile heart crumble as the reality of everything crashes into me.
Everything that happened, every bad thing that ever happened to me, it all boiled down to the person in front of me. It was all her fault, the rivalry, the fighting between the families, every single thing was her fault.
“I’m sorry that things have to end this way.”
I don’t know what compels me to do it in that moment, but I rush her, shoving at her shoulders. A look of horror flickers in her eyes, and she stumbles backward, the gun in her hand dropping to the floor with a thud. My heart races in my chest, the sound of blood pounds in my ears, and I dart for it knowing that if I don’t get it, she will. It’s strictly about survival now, and if anyone is going to get out of this alive, it’s going to be me.
My fingers wrap around the cold metal, and I stumble backward, nearly tripping over my feet in the process. Tremors of fear wrack my body, and my wild gaze swings to my stepmother. The weight of the gun in my hand is heavy, but it doesn’t stop me from lifting it, pointing the barrel directly at her.
“You can’t do it, Harlow. You aren’t a killer.” She taunts, and my finger shakes as I move it toward the trigger.
She’s right, I’m not a killer, but when it comes to protecting my unborn baby, the men I love, and myself, I’ll become anything I need to.
“Harlow, don’t do something you can’t live with…” Her voice trails off, and before I can even think about it, I pull the trigger. The kickback of the gun vibrates through me, and I watch completely unmoved as the bullet cuts through her chest. Her eyes go wide, and her mouth opens, but the words never come out.
A second later, she falls, just like Shelby did. My entire body clamps up, and then I start to shake watching as the only person I’ve had as a mother figure dies. Forcing myself to move, I drop the gun and turn running down the stairs.
Once I reach the bottom step, I yell, “Banks? Banks?”
“Over here,” he weakly replies, and I rush in the direction of his voice, finding him on the ground near the door. My hands start to move, inspecting him just as my eyes are. His hand is pressed to his side, the bright red blood seeps through his shirt, and I can barely breathe as I look into his eyes.
“Please don’t die on me, Banks.” Tears fall, skating down my cheeks, but I don’t even feel them. All I can see is blood, it’s everywhere, on my hands, on the floor. Death surrounds me, and I refuse to let it claim another person.
“Banks,” I whimper, but he’s slowly fading, the color draining from his face. He’s lost so much blood, and there is nothing I can do.
“I love you,” he says, but it sounds like a wheeze. His bright blue eyes fall closed, and panic seizes my heart.
“Don’t. Stop. This isn’t the end. Banks!” I scream, pressing harder against the wound. Sirens sound off in the distance, but it feels like it’s too late. I can feel him leaving me.
“Please, Banks! Stay with me,” I sob, but he doesn’t listen. He doesn’t open his eyes, and by the time the ambulance has arrived, I have no more tears to cry. In the end, my stepmother took more from me than I could have ever imagined. More than I think my heart can handle.
Epilogue
One Year Later
They say time heals all wounds, and I believe that. I think that as time goes on the heartache and loss, it all gets easier to deal with. The pain becomes less, the sadness isn’t so suffocating, and slowly the anger toward it all fades away.
“You sure you’re ready to do this?” Sullivan asks.
“Honestly, I’m not su
re,” I say, looking down at our four-month-old daughter. She is still so small, so fragile. Even though I know Caroline will take care of her, it’s hard to let her go. Even if it’s just for a few hours.
“I promise little Phoebe will be perfectly fine with me,” Caroline chimes in. “We will have a great time watching classic movies, reading stories, and singing that baby shark song before bedtime.”
“Oh, god, I can’t hear that song anymore,” Sullivan frowns.
“But, she loves it!” I interject. “And more importantly, it makes her sleepy.”
“She probably wants to go to sleep to get away from that song,” Sullivan grins.
“You guys just need a break, that’s all. So, go, get out of the house. Go have fun. I’ll send you updates every ten minutes if it will calm your mind. Just please, go do something.” I know she is joking, but I actually like the ten-minute update idea. The last year has been crazy, and protecting our daughter is the most important thing to me. Since her birth, I’ve been with her every second of every day.
“Don’t tempt her; she’ll hold you to it,” Oliver chuckles, walking into the living room.
“I will not,” I lie, my lips pull into a sly grin.
“She will, and that’s fine. Give us periodical updates. We’ll be keeping Harlow busy enough to take the worry off her mind.”
Caroline wrinkles her nose, “Ew, that’s nasty. I don’t want to hear about your sex life.”
Shaking my head, I give Phoebe one last kiss before buckling her into her car seat.
You can do this. You can do this. It’s just a few hours. I tell myself.
“Alright, we’ll see you guys later,” Caroline announces as she walks out the door, taking my entire life with her.
I watch from the window like a little kid as she puts her into the car, securing the car seat in the base.
The Bayshore Rivals: The Entier Series Page 42