15. What Crestwood Destroys
My screams tore out of me so violently, my throat burned instantly.
One second, Jared was standing in front of me, smiling through tears while holding my hands at the altar.
We were less than ten seconds away from jumping the broom and about to do every line dance known to man at our reception, and the next, blood exploded across my wedding dress.
The church erupted into chaos around us. I heard the shattering of the beautiful stained glass windows and the piercing scream of Jazzy’s tears. I heard security yelling and watched everyone stampede, but all I could focus on was Jared collapsing.
“JARED!”
I dropped with him so fast my knees slammed painfully against the glass floor. My veil tangled beneath me while blood spread rapidly across the front of his tux.
He was losing way too much blood.
“Baby—” His voice sounded weak already.
“No, no, no, no, no—” I screamed. My hands pressed desperately against his chest, trying to stop the blood that wouldn’t stop coming.
It kept pouring between my fingers.
“Oh my God,” I sobbed hysterically. “Please, no.”
Our family rushed around us frantically, but the sound felt distorted somehow. Like my ears stopped working correctly.
I couldn’t breathe. I couldn’t process why my husband was bleeding out in front of me, less than thirty seconds after saying vows.
“CALL THE FUCKING AMBULANCE!” JoJo screamed somewhere beside me.
His voice cracked hard enough to break my heart completely.
I looked up just long enough to see him standing there shaking violently, tears pouring down his face, while AJ held him back from the blood.
Demir cried openly on Andre’s side. My mom was screaming, and Jazzy looked destroyed.
“Daddy!” she screamed, breaking down completely near the front row.
Daddy.
The word hit Jared, too, because his eyes fluttered weakly toward her voice.
Then, blood filled his mouth.
I screamed again.
“No!” My hands shook harder, pressing against the wound. “Stay with me,” I cried desperately. “Jared, please—”
He tried to lift his hand toward my face, but he was too weak. Fear, unlike anything I ever experienced, ripped through me instantly.
“No, no, n,o no—”
Strong hands suddenly grabbed my shoulders. Zay was moving me out of the way so the paramedics could move him.
“We need room, ma’am,” a large man with kind eyes said.
“I can’t move my hand, sir. I won’t let go.”
“We need to move him NOW.”
“I’m not leaving him!”
They tried pulling me back anyway while cutting Jared’s tux open right there on the ballroom floor.
The sound of scissors slicing through fabric made this feel even more horrifying somehow.
Because that tux was supposed to be preserved forever in a box alongside mine.
We were supposed to have the most beautiful wedding memories.
Instead, today would always mark the worst day of my life.
One paramedic started CPR preparation while another pressed harder against the wound.
“He’s losing too much blood.”
Everything inside me went cold. “What does that mean?”
Nobody answered me. Suddenly, Xavier appeared beside us, looking absolutely terrifying.
“I searched all over the perimeter and the adjacent building,” he said sharply toward security. “I can’t find a trail of anyone not on the guest list. Lock this entire fuckin’ building down.”
Zay stood behind him, already on the phone, barking orders at somebody.
“I want every camera feed in this city pulled NOW.”
Murder lived in both Xavier and Zayden’s faces suddenly. Gone were the King brothers, who learned to live in the moment and be family men. The old versions were back.
The paramedics lifted Jared onto the stretcher quickly while I stumbled after them, desperately clutching his hand.
“Baby, look at me,” I cried. “Look at me, please.”
His eyes barely opened. Seeing my baby, the man who was larger than life, lie here weak, almost destroyed me more than the blood itself.
This man survived prison, wrongful conviction, decades of fights and suffering, and on the one day he let his guard down, someone tried to kill him.
As they rushed him through the ballroom, the few guests who remained moved aside, crying and filming, while flower petals stuck to the blood beneath the stretcher wheels.
The contrast between the white roses and the bright red blood was a terrible sight that I would never forget. Our fairytale looked massacred.
Outside our venue, the entire world had already arrived.
The place was barricaded with police, news vans, flashing lights, and screaming reporters with no fuckin’ decorum who attempted to talk with close family.
The second they wheeled Jared outside, camera flashes exploded everywhere.
And suddenly rage cut through my grief. Because these people were filming my husband dying.
“MOVE!” Xavier roared so loudly that the reporters physically backed away.
I’d never heard his voice sound like that before. He sounded animalistic and deadly.
They loaded Jared into the ambulance quickly while I climbed in beside him, still covered in blood from head to toe.
My wedding dress was ruined. My makeup was destroyed, and my hands were shaking uncontrollably. One medic started cutting away more fabric while another pushed medication into Jared’s IV.
“What’s his blood pressure?” One of the medics yelled from the front seat.
The medic who sat in the back with us responded, “Dropping.”
My heart stopped.
“No,” I whispered instantly. “No.”
“Ma’am, we need you to remain calm. He is still conscious, and he’s feeding from your energy. ”
“How the fuck am I supposed to be calm?!”
The medic went silent after that. Because there was nothing to say.
Jared’s hand twitched weakly beneath mine.
I grabbed it immediately.
“Baby, stay with me,” I whispered through sobs. “Please.” I cried so hard that I could barely make out anything in this ambulance beyond the feel of Jared’s hand on mine.
His eyes opened barely. And for one horrible second? He looked tired, like maybe he was too tired for this cruel, hard world and was ready to rest. Absolute terror ripped through me instantly.
“No.” I cried harder, squeezing his hand. “No, no, no, you promised me forever damnit Jared, you’re going to give it to me.”
The monitor beside him started beeping faster.
Paramedics moved more quickly. More urgently.
“Sir, stay with us.”
Blood stained the bandages again.
Then, finally, the ambulance doors burst open at the hospital.
Everything moved fast after that. Technically, because we got our marriage license done the morning of the wedding, I was his legal spouse and was asked to sign his medical forms. Nurses were shoving consent forms in my face, and doctors tried their best to describe the surgery to me.
I was overwhelmed, angry as fuck, and losing all hope.
They ripped him away from me before I could even process it.
“Jared!” I screamed, trying to follow.
A nurse grabbed me immediately.
“Ma’am, you can’t go back there.”
“That’s my husband!” The word shattered me emotionally.
The doors swung open as doctors rushed Jared down the hallway into surgery. Then they disappeared behind double doors.
My knees gave out instantly. I collapsed right there in the middle of the hospital floor, still covered in my husband’s blood, while my veil and wedding dress pooled around me like a ghost.
In that moment, I believed there was no such thing as the right time for Jared and me when Crestwood was determined to break apart families and happy homes.