Chapter 40
Hannah
This can’t be happening.
This can’t be happening.
Derek walked out of our bedroom, closing the door quietly behind him, but I could still hear his footsteps as they grew further and further away and my heart...it raced.
It raced and beat so hard I was sure even the neighbors could hear it.
I felt myself hyperventilating, trembling as I waited for something...anything. A sound. A voice. Something that told me he was okay.
Something that told me it was anything but an intruder but deep down I knew. Deep down I knew that this was what we’d been waiting for.
No way did I have a stalker that just wanted to keep tabs on my life.
This was someone who was planning something.
I stood up and tiptoed around the room, grabbing one of Derek’s t-shirts and throwing it on and did the same with my discarded underwear but it wasn’t until I was trying to find a robe that I heard the commotion.
The loud sound of someone being slammed into a wall, and then Derek’s angry voice. The anxiety clouded my hearing, but I heard it then...in three simple words...a voice I hadn’t heard in a long time.
“Where’s the bitch?”
I sucked in a ragged breath when I heard a pained groan and then another loud thump.
I can’t stay here.
I can’t stay here.
My feet moved before I could even process what I was doing and I rushed toward the violent sounds of fighting and things falling...but I wasn’t prepared, not for the sight in front of me. Eugene, worn and exhausted and completely different than I remembered, struggled with Derek, pulling away from him as Derek tried to pry something shiny and metallic from his hands.
A gun.
Oh, God.
A gun.
There was blood on Eugene’s lip and it looked like he wasn’t completely focused, but the rage on his face was palpable.
I was in too much shock to react, standing still as I saw everything unfolding in front of me. It wasn’t until Eugene landed a hard punch to Derek’s side, enough to cause Derek to wince that I reacted, the sound too much for me to bear.
“I’m here! Stop, please stop! I’m here!”
Everything stilled.
My gaze locked on Eugene who seemed to have seen a ghost. My heart pounded against my chest as I stood there, frozen.
“I’m here, Eugene. What do you want?”
It all happened so fast I barely had time to react.
Derek turned to face me, his eyes wide and full of a terror I had never seen before and then the gleam of perverse satisfaction on Eugene’s face appeared.
And then the gun was pointed at me.
Seconds.
It all changed in seconds.
In Derek’s momentary distraction, the few moments he looked at me, were enough for Eugene to pull the trigger.
The sound of the gun going off echoed and I ducked, covering my ears at the sound. Derek shouted my name and ran toward me, jumping over the small end table beside the sofa and then I heard it again, two more gunshots, except that time, when I ducked, Derek was shielding my body.
I wanted to say so much.
I wanted to fast forward into our happy ending.
But the right side of his shirt quickly turned red.
His face paled and he stumbled back, a pained gasp escaping past his lips.
“Fuck,” he muttered, and though he struggled to breath, I could see him trying to steady himself, taking in a deep breath.
One that caused him pain.
“Oh my god, Derek!”
His hand went to his side, trying to hold on to the wound to stop the bleeding but it wasn’t enough. His hand was soon covered in blood and I knew it then...I knew it in my heart...I have to end this.
I saw red.
Red like the blood leaving his body.
Red like the blood that covered my hands as I tried to stop his bleeding.
Red like the love that burned in my heart for him.
And then I saw him...Eugene, standing there, staring at us, like he couldn’t fucking believe what he had done.
“Is this what you wanted?” Full of rage, I spoke to him, looking at him in the eyes as he stared at Derek. “Is this what you fucking wanted?”
Tears blurred my vision, but I could see him nod perfectly.
“You took everything from me,” he said. I’d never heard someone’s voice so full of hate. Full of loss. “You stole from me. Took my livelihood. I lost my family. My friends. You, Hannah, you are responsible for what I have become.”
The words shattered me and I whimpered, momentarily losing the strength I’d mustered.
“You fucking took without looking back. You took and took and took without concern for others. You destroyed families and now you think you have a right to move on and be happy while some of us won’t ever recover? Fuck you.”
“Hannah, don’t—”
I held Derek up despite still having a gun pointed at me. I didn’t care, couldn’t face the idea of him losing my life because of me. I wanted to tell him something, anything, that would keep him conscious, but when I opened my mouth to speak, Eugene’s grip on my arm forced me away from Derek.
The metal gun was pressed to my stomach and Eugene looked down on me, pupils dilated and completely lost in his anger.
There was no reasoning with him. There was no way out.
I felt Derek moving behind me, heard a pained sound from his lips, I could feel his eyes on me…calculating…trying to figure a way out. But it did little to comfort me, especially when Eugene glanced over, threatening to shoot again.
I focused his attention on me instead, placing my hand over his on the weapon, and lifting it toward my face. Eugene’s eyes widened, and I heard Derek utter my name behind me but I didn’t look away from Eugene’s face.
“Do you hate me enough to kill me?” My question lingered in the air, and I knew I was playing with fire..but I didn’t care.
I needed more time.
Surely someone had called the cops already.
Surely help was on its way.
“Do you hate me enough to take two lives? Hm?” For the first time since I’d seen him, a flash of fear appeared on Eugene’s face. “Do it. This is your chance.”
“Hannah—” I didn’t look at Derek, but the sound of his pain was so palpable I could feel it. And the paling of Eugene’s face told me the same. I could see it through his eyes, Derek was slipping away.
A strangled sob left my lips. “Do it, Eugene. End it. If you think this is what you need...pull the trigger.”
He gulped, the sound so audible it drowned out the sound of the front door opening slightly.
“I considered you a friend.” My eyes widened when he spoke, the words unexpectedly sending an intense guilt through every cell of my body. “My wife was your friend. We were friends. And you took it all. From her. From my children. From me.”
The reality of his pain hit me like a tidal wave and the words quietly left my lips before I could stop them.
“I’m sorry, Eugene. I’m so sorry.”
Something behind Eugene fell and he turned around, and the sound of another gunshot ricocheted through the house. I squeezed my eyes shut, waiting...waiting for the impact...waiting for the darkness to take me, but it never did. In a matter of seconds, the weight of Eugene’s touch was gone, and I was shoved aside, landing with a thump on the floor.
It wasn’t until then that I saw Blake slumped on the floor, wheezing as he tainted the floor red with his blood.
“Blake,” I gasped, watching as Derek wrestled Eugene to the floor like he wasn’t injured. He pulled him back, his arm surrounding Eugene’s neck. His eyes grew wide with horror, wide with the realization he no longer had the power. Even in his pain, Derek was stronger.
Eugene dropped the gun but Derek didn’t let him go.
“Call the cops, Hannah! Now!” His eyes traveled from me to Blake and it took me a few moments to react but I finally did, rattling off our address to the operator before dropping the phone to the floor.
I crawled to Blake with every bone in my body trembling in fear and ripped his shirt open.
No. No. No.
Two dark bullet holes pierced his skin...blood seeped past uncontrollably. He must have seen the fear on my face because he offered me a half smile, reaching up to touch my face.
“Hannah, put your hands on his wounds!” Derek yelled from behind me. “Now, baby! You have to do it now!”
My body reacted to Derek’s words and I did as he said, Blake’s blood quickly covering my hands.
“I’m...” Blake coughed, once, twice...wincing in pain. “I’m s-sorry...”
I shook my head as the tears spilled down my face. “No, no...Blake...”
“Is…Derek…okay?”
I nodded, glancing back at Derek. Eugene’s gaze had glazed over as he slumped back. Derek shoved his—what seemed like lifeless body—off him.
He stared at him, eyes wide, as if he couldn’t believe he had done it, before wincing and approaching me. I knew it was the adrenaline because blood still poured from his wound.
“I’m fine, Blake,” Derek said as he knelt next to me. He placed his hands over mine, applying more force than I thought he could when I looked at his pale face. “The paramedics will be here soon.”
The two men I loved—my husband and my best friend—were injured. I couldn’t lose them both. Oh, God...I wouldn’t be able to live with myself.
Fear creeped in. The idea made me sick to my stomach, but I forced the bile back down, knowing they both needed me.
“I’m going to pass out,” he groaned when Derek applied more pressure.
Derek nodded, as if he already knew.
I shook my head, “No, no, no, no...please.”
“He’s lost too much blood, Hannah...” Blake winced, cursing once more as he sucked in a breath. A painful, wheezing, breath. “You need to tell him whatever you need to say now.”
I looked at Derek, searching for what he was actually trying to say. His pained eyes told me everything he couldn’t say out loud and a sob broke through my lips. I wasn’t losing Derek...but I was losing Blake.
“I forgive you,” I whispered, my tears falling to his shirt. “I forgive you Blake but you have to hold on so we can create more memories together.” His eyes fluttered closed and the pain in my chest intensified. “You’re my best friend...please...”
The door burst open and police officers walked in with weapons drawn. They rambled off orders and approached us.
I didn’t even notice when Derek pulled me into his arms or when they were talking to me.
I didn’t notice when they began taking Eugene’s body.
I didn’t notice much of anything until they tended to Blake and said they couldn’t find a pulse.
It was when the ear-splitting scream that tore from my throat forced me to double over in pain, that Derek fought off the paramedics still trying to assess him. He took me into his arms as they began CPR and placed Blake on the stretcher, holding me together as the world around me fell apart.
It was too late.
It was always too late.