Chapter 3
767 Words
Bianca came rushing over, nearly tripping over her own skirt. "Summer, Adrian was just worried about me, that's all. I know you're the jealous type, but throwing around the word divorce is just childish."
I didn't answer. I walked up to her, pulled my hand back, and slapped her so hard across the face that the sound cracked through the garden. Her head snapped to the side.
Adrian froze for about one second. Then he shoved me in the shoulder like my skin had burned him.
I stumbled backward, and my spine slammed against the wooden trellis. The pain bent me over so sharply I couldn't straighten up.
"Are you insane?" He stood over me, shouting. "All of this because I asked you to grab a bandage?"
I lifted my face and met his eyes. The fire behind my own was raging. "Yes."
"You're impossible!" His voice cut like a blade, and he knew exactly where to sink it. "No wonder you're an orphan. No wonder your parents abandoned you. No wonder you went blind."
The words impaled me where I stood. I felt them go straight through my heart, and every breath I tried to take just leaked out of the wound.
So that was what he thought. The eyesight I'd lost throwing myself in front of a car for him—he'd always seen it as me "getting what I deserved."
Bianca's hand went to her face. Her expression flickered, suddenly tense.
She signed to Adrian in a blur, her eyes sharp with malice, "Can she see me? How else did she land that hit so perfectly?"
"No way," he signed back, sharp and absolute.
But his eyes flicked to me anyway.
They landed on my blank, unfocused stare.
Bianca wasn't satisfied. She pointed toward the red sports car parked down the drive, and her hands turned vicious.
"Hit her with the car. If she jumps out of the way, we'll know she's faking."
Adrian went quiet.
He didn't move. Maybe there was still a shred of hesitation left.
Bianca bit her lip, pushed harder, "You said she was blind. Scared to test it? Or do you actually care about her? Adrian, if you can't even do this, you're not getting me tonight."
As she signed, Bianca nudged Stella's fetch ball with her toe and kicked it straight into the middle of the driveway.
"WOOF!" Stella shot after it, right into the lane. She'd never been trained to avoid cars.
My hands clenched at my sides.
Bianca was cruel. She'd lured Stella right in front of me, using my dog's life as another piece on her board. If I dodged, I'd expose myself, and Stella would be crushed.
All just to test me. She was willing to throw both our lives into the game.
And Adrian, pushed to the edge, finally made up his mind.
He walked to the car and opened the door.
He chose her.
The engine roared. Headlights cut through the dark, flooding my vision with white.
The car screamed toward us.
Ten meters. Five meters. Three meters.
Something inside me died.
I didn't think. I threw myself over Stella and held on.
Then the car hit me.
The impact sent me skidding across the ground.
I rolled. Old wounds split open. New ones burned. Everything hurt.
Adrian scrambled out, grabbed me by the shoulders, his voice cracking, "Why didn't you move?!"
I pushed him off and wiped the blood from my lip. My voice came out flat.
"Because I wanted to bet one last time. Looks like I lost."
I raised my head, my blind eyes meeting his terrified face.
The color drained from him. He stumbled back, staring at the blood soaking through my dress, finally seeing what he'd done.
"Summer... I..."
Bianca's eyes snapped to my phone on the ground.
The screen was still lit. The screen read: "Brother" — Call in progress. Recording and location had been running silently the whole time.
"You were recording us?!" She lunged for it. "Give it to me!"
She never made it.
From outside the gates, engines thundered.
The iron gates burst open. Black SUVs—top plates, top money—roared over the lawn and slammed to a stop in the courtyard.
Men in black suits poured out. Every exit was sealed.
Three men in tailored black suits stepped out from the headlight glare. Their eyes swept the scene like ice, and stopped on me, lying in a pool of blood.
The eldest's eyes were red around the edges. His voice cut through like frost,
"Who the hell touched my sister?"
- Writer
