After The Don Left Me To Die I Chose Freedom Chapter 07
In that moment, the Hale family came apart at the seams.
“Luca…”
Grace instinctively tried to play the victim.
But before a single tear could fall, Luca’s hand was already clamped around her throat.
“Grace Hale. What could you possibly give me that would make up for my Emma?”
Grace’s face flushed crimson in an instant.
“I didn’t—I wasn’t—let go of me!”
The harder she struggled, the darker the rage in his eyes.
“Do you remember what she sounded like, begging me from under the snow? She told me she was bleeding, and you said it looked like butchered game.”
“Every single time I was about to go save her, it was you who stopped me!”
Grace choked and sputtered, tears streaming, her whole body shaking.
Just as she was about to lose consciousness, she finally cracked.
“Fine, yes! I said it!”
“But so what? You all believed me, didn’t you?”
She shoved at him with all her might, her eyes red and wild.
“If you want to blame someone, blame yourself!”
“You had the chance to save her. Why didn’t you go? You saw her bleeding. Why did you still hang up?”
Luca’s hand went rigid.
Grace turned on their parents next.
“And you two! What are you pretending to regret now?”
“You knew I was terrified she’d come back and take my place. And you just said she was stubborn—that a little cold shoulder would sort her out.”
Mom stumbled back a step, her face ashen.
Dad opened his mouth but couldn’t produce a single word.
Grace was unraveling completely, each word more vicious than the last.
“You think I wanted to be this way?”
“I just couldn’t stand her coming back! I hated her!”
“Why should everything I had for twenty years disappear the moment she walked through the door?”
“I’m not the one who’s wrong! You are! All of you! You’re the ones who spoiled me, and then you stood by and watched me turn into this!”
By the end, her voice had shredded to nothing.
But those words fell on the room like a bucket of ice water, and everyone finally came to.
Mom covered her mouth, tears pouring down her face.
“It was us…”
“We’re the ones who destroyed Emma.”
Luca released his grip.
Grace crumpled to the floor, gasping for air in great, ragged gulps.
She lifted her head, her voice raw and hoarse.
“It’s too late for regret. Even if she wakes up, she’ll never forgive you.”