Make Them Regret It Chapter 20
I reached up and unclasped my half of the pendant from my neck.
A flicker of hope lit Colton’s eyes.
“Colton,” I said, “you stood in that doorway and watched them cut my Core out of me, and all you said was, ‘Endure it.’”
“When you beat me on those steps, you said that once it was done, the matter would be closed.”
“When you sat drinking in the main house, you said I cared most about my family, and that I would sign without question.”
“You were right.”
I raised my hand and hurled my half of the pendant at the stone ground with all my strength.
A sharp crack echoed in the silence.
It shattered.
The moment the token was destroyed, the backlash from the contract struck.
The half around Colton’s neck cracked as well. He choked, spitting blood onto his crisp white shirt.
Pain lanced through my own chest, a phantom echo of the bond breaking.
But I didn’t move.
“The engagement you all worked so hard to make me destroy,” I said, “I’m destroying it today.”
“This time, it isn’t for anyone else.”
“It’s because I don’t want you anymore.”
Colton dropped to his knees, his hands scrambling for the fragments on the ground, picking up one piece only to lose another.
The edges were sharp. They sliced his fingers, and blood dripped onto the white ribbons tied to his car.
“Blythe,” he said, looking up at me, his face a mask of disbelief. “You said we’d grow old together.”
“The Blythe Romano who said that,” I told him, “died in the chapel.”
I turned and walked back toward the estate.
Behind me, he called my name.
I didn’t look back.
This time, I wasn’t the one being left behind.