Chapter 78
[ 511 words ]
Chapter 78:
I drove straight to the cemetery on the outskirts of town. My father, Marion Riley, was buried there. Before I cut all ties with Ethan for good, I felt I should tell my father.
The cemetery was hushed, broken only by the sound of pine branches stirring in the wind. I bought a bouquet of white lilies, my father’s favorite, and set them gently before his headstone. Then I sat down on the cold stone steps, no longer caring about appearances.
“Dad, I came to see you.”
My voice broke the moment the words left me, rough and unsteady.
“I’m ending my mate bond with Ethan.” My gaze settled on the gentle smile in my father’s photograph, and my eyes began to sting. “I used to tell you all about him, about how well he treated me, about how he was the mate fate chose for me. When I think about it now, I was so stupid.”
I kept talking, emptying everything in my heart. I told him about the three years I had spent waiting, the nights I lay awake, and how he was prepared to leave me for another woman.
“I loved him for such a long time, Dad. But his heart was too cold. I was never able to reach it.”
I drew in a deep, unsteady breath, and my hand rose on instinct to my still-flat belly. My voice dropped. “There’s something else. Dad, I’m pregnant. You’re going to have a grandchild. Maybe this child is the Moon Goddess’s last bit of mercy for me. I’m going to keep it from him. After the bond is broken, I’ll leave Voss Group and move somewhere no one knows who we are. I’ll raise the baby myself.”
Once I had said it all, the crushing weight on my chest seemed to ease a little.
𝖥in𝘥 𝘯𝘰vel 𝖯D𝗙𝗌 𝗼𝘯 g𝘢𝗅n𝘰𝘃𝗲𝗅𝘀.𝘤o𝘮
I pushed myself to my feet, gave my father’s grave one last look, and decided I would live for myself and my child.
At three in the afternoon, I left the cemetery.
The entrance ramp to the highway was jammed, and I waited quietly in the line of cars. Then a black sedan suddenly shot in from the side, forcing its way between my car and the one ahead.
I stomped on the brakes, and the tires let out a sharp, ugly screech against the road.
“Have you lost your mind?” I breathed out, one hand pressed to my chest as adrenaline surged through me.
But that was only where the nightmare began.
After we got onto the highway, the black car acted as if it had singled me out, keeping ahead of me the whole time. If I sped up, it sped up. If I switched lanes, it followed. Every time I tried to pass, it slammed on the brakes and forced me to slow down.
The vicious block lasted for a full ten minutes.
Through the rearview mirror, I saw a man in sunglasses in the driver’s seat of the black car. At one point, when he changed lanes, he even rolled down the window and shot me a hideous grin.
I didn’t know him.
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