68. Alistair #2
“Do it then,” he says. “If you want to kill me so badly.”
My teeth grind together, but no matter how hard I try, I can’t push myself to stab him.
Fuck!
Why can’t I fucking do it? He deserves every inch of pain.
Suddenly, Penelope comes rushing out of nowhere and stabs him in the belly.
He cringes, and I step back in shock.
“That’s for driving my sister over the edge,” Penelope growls.
“Dylan!” Alistair calls out, but I can barely hear him.
My father stumbles backward while I struggle to hold on to the knife I was determined to stab him with.
“Dylan, what are you doing?” Penelope asks, but I can barely hear her. When she grabs my arm, my eyes fixate on her grip and find her eyes after.
What is going on with me?
Suddenly, my father pulls out a gun and points it at Penelope.
I push her out of the way. “No!”
BANG!
The gunshot hits me in the shoulder, and the force knocks me down into the grass.
“Dylan! Look what you made me do.” My father’s gun is still pointed right at Penelope. “That girl needs to perish.”
When I turn to look at her, Felix has already stepped in front of her.
“I’d rather fucking die than watch you kill her in front of me,” Felix rasps.
He’d die for her?
I never realized his obsession with her went that deep … but maybe he didn’t either. And I have a feeling none of us knew we were falling for her until it was too late to stop.
I’m momentarily too stunned to move, not just from the pain but from all the bundled-up emotions too.
Until Ali steps between her and the barrel too. “I won’t let you kill her.”
My father grinds his teeth. With each passing second, his eyes looked increasingly insane, like he couldn’t stomach the idea of all of us protecting this one girl.
“That girl is responsible for all of your problems, just like her goddamn sister, and now you’re all protecting her?” he growls.
Suddenly, he points the gun away from them … and aims it at me.
“What are you doing?” I ask, writhing on the ground.
“Get up,” he growls.
I do what he says only because of the barrel of the gun and the imminent threat to my life.
“Come here,” he says.
Everyone’s on edge, including me.
Would he actually shoot me? But all the schemes, all the lies, they were all to protect me, right?
He whips his gun back and forth and says, “Come. Now!”
Any semblance of emotion is gone from his face, something that’s never happened before.
At least, not in my presence.
But I guess he kept this side of him hidden from me all this time.
I swallow and approach him.
“Dylan, don’t do it!” Penelope says.
“Don’t intervene,” I reply, terrified she might try something. “Felix, take her,” I tell him.
He nods, but Penelope protests, fighting against Felix’s strong grip on her shoulder. “No! Fuck no, I’m not going anywhere!” she yells, tears staining her eyes. “I’m not leaving you.”
I’m struck by the sincerity in her voice.
Could she possibly ever forgive me for what I did?
My father grabs my bloody arm and pulls me to him, pushing the barrel into my head. “You drove me to do this. I sacrificed everything for you, and for what?”
“You did this to yourself,” I growl. “I never asked you for a damn thing.”
“That girl was going to ruin your life!” he spits back, shoving the gun further into my head.
“So you ruined hers instead,” I grit.
He practically spits out his words. “I had no other choice!”
“So you admit it,” Penelope rasps from the side, tears rolling down her cheeks.
Watching her cry hurts more than the wound in my shoulder.
Fuck. I wish I could spare her from this pain.
“You admit you killed her,” Penelope says.
My father snorts and throws out a stilted laugh. “I didn’t force her to run off that ledge. She made that choice.”
“But you told her to leave and abort the baby or face the consequences!” Penelope screams.
Everyone is silent for a few seconds, but the air crackles like lightning.
“I did what I had to, to protect my son and—”
“Your reputation,” I interject. “Because that’s what this is all about, isn’t it?”
But instead of replying, he only pushes the gun further into my temple, confirming my suspicions.
“And then you forced Nathan and Kai to torment me to get me to leave too,” Penelope says. “They set fire to the Alpha Psi house because you told them to, didn’t you?”
“Nathan’s a tool,” my father spouts. “They were supposed to retrieve the diary and destroy the evidence, but they couldn’t even do that correctly.”
No wonder those guys didn’t want to talk. If they did, he would have them killed.
“This was never about me …” I mutter, making a fist, despite the pain. “It was about you and your poisonous need to be a perfect little family.” I brace myself. “But that family has turned to dust because of you.”
I spin on my heels and punch him in the face, but he recoils and knocks his forehead against mine. I punch him again, this time in the gut.
BANG!
The gun goes off, a bullet entering through my waist.
“Dylan!” Alistair says, trying to approach us.
“Don’t intervene!” I yell back.
“Come on then, boy,” my father taunts him. “I’ll blow your brains out before you even so much as touch me.”
“You mother—”
I grasp his wrist and force him to lower the gun, but he won’t let go without a fight. We struggle for power as we backtrack all the way to The Edge.
“Give up,” I tell him. “Give it to me.”
“And let my life be ruined by your fucked-up antics?” he retorts. “Fuck no.”
He jabs me in the stomach so hard I buck and heave.
“You deserve to rot in jail for the rest of your life,” I say through gritted teeth, looking up at him.
“I’ll kill every last one of these motherfuckers you call friends before I let that happen,” he says.
My eyes widen as he aims his gun right at Penelope.
No.
I can’t let it happen.
I throw myself at him as hard as I can, knocking him off balance.
BANG!
The gun goes off as he tumbles off The Edge, grasping my ankle just before he goes, pulling me with him.