Chapter 41 #2
The threat shouldn’t have pleased me. It really shouldn’t have, especially not with Jonathan standing there, blood trickling from his temple.
But it did.
Kian’s protectiveness sent a dangerous warmth through me, even as my fury at Jonathan twisted in my chest. He had let me believe he was dead. He had put Sienna’s life at risk. Mine too. While he was… hiding.
Jonathan’s gaze flicked between Kian and me, realization dawning slowly. I could almost see the pieces clicking into place.
“You can’t possibly prefer him over me,” he said, his voice dropping.
Kian said nothing. He didn’t need to. The two men locked eyes, the space between them charged and volatile.
I licked my lips, forcing air into my lungs. This wasn’t a matter of who I preferred but of what he had done.
“How could you do it, Jonathan?” I asked, accusation clear in my voice while my eyes burned. “How could you?”
The question barely scratched the surface of everything I wanted to scream. How could you leave your son? Leave me? How could you let those things happen to Sienna? How could you let your ex-wife destroy our lives while you stayed hidden?
“I can explain,” Jonathan said quickly, desperation bleeding through his confidence.
“There’s nothing you can say,” I replied, my voice shaking despite myself, “that justifies letting me believe you were dead.”
“Oh, this is priceless. You ditched me for her, and now she no longer wants you.” Jacqueline threw her head back and let out a high-pitched crackle. Then, in one swift move, she yanked a gun from Amir’s holster and pointed it at Jonathan and me. “You both deserve to die.”
“This is the last time you threaten Sophie,” Kian said softly, his own gun already lifted and aimed at her forehead threateningly.
Yet, Jonathan’s own gun remained hanging uselessly from his hand. I searched his face while struggling to understand why even now, with his ex-wife’s gun pointed at me, he couldn’t seem to defend me against her.
“You wouldn’t dare,” Jacqueline hissed, her eyes wild and full of devotion as she stared at her ex-husband.
“I planned on skinning you alive, but this will suffice,” Kian drawled, then pulled the trigger.
A single gunshot echoed through the air. I gasped, my ears ringing as I watched Jacqueline’s body slump onto the floor.
Shock hit me, rolling through me in waves. Then a single tear followed while I watched blood pool around her body, those dead eyes staring blankly. It hit me how different it was from seeing Jonathan’s eyes stare blankly at me that rainy autumn night.
He’d been acting then, but this wasn’t an act. This was reality.
My instinct to heal kicked in and I took a step forward, but Kian pulled me back.
“There’s nothing you can do for her.” He sounded like he was grinding his teeth. I searched his face, asking silent questions, and a muscle jumped in his jaw as he watched me. “She was a threat to you. I couldn’t have that.”
I moved closer to him. Although I didn’t agree with the method, I knew he was right.
Jacqueline had done so much damage and it was time she paid for it.
I wasn’t part of this life, and violence went against everything I stood for, but so did my loyalty to my family.
And Jacqueline had hurt Sienna in the worst possible way.
Instead, I focused on Jonathan’s face and dark expression as he stared at Kian’s hand wrapped around my waist.
“Soph—” he started.
“How are you alive?” I didn’t mean my tone to come out so accusing, but I couldn’t help it. “You faked your own death!”
“I had to.”
“You had to,” I repeated with disbelief. “You made a fool of me. Do you have any idea what it cost my family? Sienna?” His Adam’s apple bobbed, but he remained silent, his expression never wavering. “Does your son know?”
“No.”
I let out an incredulous breath. “So you left not only me believing you were dead, but also your own son.”
“I can explain.”
“How?” My voice turned high-pitched with each word as tears burned in my eyes. “Because frankly, no amount of explanation could ever justify what you’ve done.”
“Kai will understand. He knows how far his mother was willing to go to end me.” He must be delusional if he truly believed that. “In time, so will you. Jacqueline even tried to use her family at the Black Oil. I needed protection, and the safest thing to do was to die.”
I didn’t dignify him with a response, because now… it was even more apparent he was only thinking of himself. “Why would you put us all through this?”
“I thought… it would push Jacqueline over the edge. Or make her move on, best-case scenario.”
My brows furrowed as I repeated, “Push her over the edge? As in… kill herself?”
He shrugged. “She made everyone’s life hell.”
I stared at him, dumbfounded, wondering if I ever knew this man at all.
“Who pulled you out of the car?” I asked instead. “I heard the gunshot and then you…” My voice cracked and I couldn’t finish the sentence.
“A man I hired. It was meant to be believable and…” He trailed off.
“And?”
He took a deep breath in and released it slowly. “And make the police believe Jacqueline had something to do with it.”
I was at a loss for words while I stared at him wide-eyed, not believing my own ears.
“I’ve seen some scumbags in my life,” Kian gritted with a dark expression, “but you take the cake, Jonathan.”
“I doubt it, considering your background,” Jonathan scoffed.
“You left Sophie high and dry at the mercy of an emotionally unstable woman with connections to the Black Oil Syndicate. It never occurred to you that Sophie, her family, and even your own son could have been killed as a result?”
“Jacqueline’s family with the Black Oil ties had washed their hands of her.”
“But not of Kai,” Kian said. If looks could kill, I was convinced Jonathan would have been dead right now.
“Please, don’t you act all high and mighty,” Jonathan hissed. “You’re a killer through and through. How many innocent people have died because of you?”
“Don’t you fucking dare,” I chimed in, my voice trembling with fury. “Don’t you dare turn this. There’s nothing you can do to make yourself look or feel better.”
Jonathan took a step toward me, but immediately stopped as Kian pointed his gun at his forehead. “Don’t you fucking take another step or I swear… I’ll kill you and you can rot with this yacht and your ex-wife.”
My ex-lover’s eyes found me.
“This kind of life—his life—is not for you, Soph,” Jonathan said quietly, desperation lacing his voice. “He’s a killer.”
My spine snapped upright and my eyes flashed with fury. “And what are you, Jonathan?”
“I’m not a killer.”
He was right; he wasn’t. He was much worse. He was an emotional manipulator. A toxic narcissist who left his son and me at the mercy of his crazy ex-wife while we mourned his loss.
I shook my head, tears streaming down my face and my body shaking. “Kian’s not—”
“I love you, Soph,” Jonathan continued, cutting me off. “You’re my best friend. We were always meant to be together.”
I straightened my shoulders, ignoring these stupid tears that refused to stop falling. “Friends don’t lie,” I croaked. “Friends don’t leave each other hanging. And if you really loved me, you wouldn’t have left me like that.”
“I had no other choice,” he said, reaching out to caress my wet cheek. “But now we can be together.”
“You have no right to touch her.” Kian grabbed his arm, twisting it, and barked, “Don’t ever fucking touch her.”
Jonathan swallowed hard, his expression pained.
“You don’t know what we have,” he murmured, looking at me pleadingly. “You don’t get to tell me what to do.”
“Whatever we might’ve had, Jonathan,” I said weakly, “you destroyed it.”
“Don’t do this, Soph. I know you’re hurt, but I’ll make it up to you. You and this old fucker on the beach… that’s just sex. What we have is real.”
I reeled with realization just as Kian gritted, “It was you watching us that day. I should fucking kill you for that. Maybe you’re just as twisted as your ex.”
“Don’t… k-kill him,” I managed to get out.
I couldn’t breathe. My heart tore in half, crumbling right inside my chest, but I knew it was over. Jonathan knew it too.
He’d left me on the road for strangers to find me. He didn’t care enough to protect me. Even worse, he didn’t protect Sienna. He wasn’t there for me. He hadn’t cared about me at all over the last nine months.
“Take me back,” Jonathan said softly. “I’ll make it up to you for the rest of our lives. I’ll make everything right, I promise.”
I shook my head. “I wouldn’t take you back if you crawled on your hands and knees over broken glass.”
Jonathan was my past. My future was right here next to me.
I turned to Kian and said quietly, “Can we go home now?”
A long moment passed while Kian studied my face. “Home.”
Kian and I walked out onto the deck and didn’t look back.