The Bride Wore Blood At The Finish Line Chapter 03
Hunter’s hand went slack on my jaw.
His eyes locked on the red spreading under me. Wider. Wider. Like the sight had physically burned him.
I watched the cruelty in his eyes crack apart. Piece by piece. Something else took its place. Panic. Shock. Something raw.
He stumbled backward.
Dropped to the floor.
The pain was tearing through every nerve in my body. But I tilted my head up and I laughed at him. Ugly. Broken.
“Hunter. You’ve always wanted a kid of your own, right?”
Warm liquid kept running down my thigh.
I stared at his colorless face and drove the words in like a blade.
“I was carrying your baby. And you just killed it. With your own knee.”
Hunter’s chest was heaving.
His throat worked. His trembling fingers reached for me on instinct.
“Hunter! Don’t let her play you!”
Chloe’s voice cut in from the door. Tearful. Panicked.
Her eyes darted for a half second. Then she bit her lip like a wounded angel.
“After the fire three years ago, even the top specialists in Europe said you’d never father a child. Nora’s willing to lie about this just to keep me away from you? That’s how far she’ll go?”
She looked at me. Eyes wet. Voice trembling with fake heartbreak.
“Nora, I know you hate that I got the pole seat. But using something like this to twist the knife in Hunter? That’s cruel. Even for you.”
“You give him hope, then tell him you were lying—”
“It’ll break him!”
Chloe’s words hit Hunter like ice water. Whatever softness had cracked open in his eyes just froze over again.
He straightened up. His face went cold. Disgusted.
“Nora. You actually make me sick.”
He looked down at me like I was gum on his shoe.
“You’d fake a pregnancy to force me down the aisle? That’s how low you’ll go?”
Every muscle in my body was cramping. I still laughed.
“I’m lying?”
My shaking fingers slipped into my pocket.
With hands soaked in my baby’s blood, I pulled out the ultrasound report. Held it up to him.
“Then read it yourself, Hunter.”
Just look down.
Just look at one line on that paper, and you’ll know your own knee just wiped out the last Vance heir. That you ended your family’s bloodline.
Hunter snatched the report out of my hand.
I almost smiled.
He didn’t read it.
“Nora, I don’t have time for your games!”
His face twisted. He crushed the report into a ball. Threw it into the pool of blood under me like it was garbage.
“You don’t understand English? I said I’m out of patience! Out!”
He grabbed a fistful of my hair. Yanked my head back. Forced me to look at him.
My scalp felt like it was tearing off. His eyes were ice.
Then he slapped me.
“Enough of the drama! You think I’m gonna fall for this?”
The slap knocked me sideways. My back slammed into the metal locker.
Ethan’s trophies rattled off the shelf. Broken glass rained down on me. Slivers stuck into my skin.
Hunter’s voice came from above me. Cold. Bored.
“Cut the dying-swan act. Fine. You want to marry me so bad. Grandma likes you so much.”
“For the succession, I’ll marry you.”
He looked down. His eyes swept over the blood. He let out a small, contemptuous laugh.
“Happy now? Tomorrow’s wedding. You show up. I don’t care if you have to crawl.”
He didn’t look at me again. He put his arm around Chloe and walked out.
The door slammed shut.
Like a fish gasping on land, I dragged myself up. Inch by inch. Out of the blood.
I pulled Ethan’s burned helmet tight against my chest.
I stumbled out of the garage. I pulled out my phone to call for help.
Then my stomach twisted. A pain like a meat grinder chewed through my insides.
My legs gave. I hit the pavement hard.
The last few papers in my pocket scattered.
The night wind screamed.
The blood-soaked ultrasound tumbled across the asphalt. Then, like a kite with a cut string, it disappeared into the dark.
Just like my baby. Barely there. Wiped out by his own father.
The world went black. I collapsed on the cold pavement.
When I opened my eyes, I was staring at a white hospital ceiling.
The bleach smell burned my nose.
The doctor set a thin ultrasound printout on my nightstand. Her eyes were soft with pity.
“You came in too late. The fetus stopped developing. We had to perform an emergency procedure to prevent infection. I’m so sorry.”
That tiny shadow on the screen.
I never got to hear its heartbeat. And its own father erased it. Right along with my brother.
I didn’t cry.
I just folded the printout, careful and slow, and tucked it inside the burned helmet on the nightstand.
That’s when Hunter’s phone call came ripping through the silence.
The second I picked up, he was already shouting.
“Where the hell are you?! Grandma flew in special to see you try on the wedding dress and you stood her up?!”