A Day in a Life

Chapter Thirty-Three

Elijah

“ W HAT WAS THAT ?” Ryan shouts in my ear. “Who was he talking to?”

“Smart move,” I hear Cole say, a smug tone in his voice.

“Someone had to do it. It certainly wasn’t going to be you.”

Wait. That’s not Sydni. There’s another female in the room.

“Everyone thinks she’s dead. Now she’ll stay that way. No one will ever be the wiser.”

Both Ryan and I are out of our cars and running toward the door the moment we hear those words.

Cold fear runs through my veins like ice water. No, it’s not possible. They can’t have killed her. There was no warning, no scream. She can’t be gone. She just can’t.

“She might’ve told someone else she was here. A friend.” That’s Cole.

An angry laugh sounds out. “What friends? Sydni didn’t have friends. Her paintings were her friends.”

I know that voice. I’ve heard it before. But, no, it can’t be. That can’t be right. Cole’s girlfriend was…

“What should we do with the body?” Cole asks. “She’s getting blood on my floor.” He sounds irritated.

Ryan doesn’t bother with the door. He grabs the rocker from the front porch and throws it through a window.

We’re both in the house, guns drawn, before they can utter another word. Pain is scorching through my leg, but adrenaline keeps me upright and ignoring the stabbing agony.

Cole is so taken by surprise that he stumbles backward, falls over his own two feet, and hits his head on the corner of the cold marble coffee table on the way down.

He lands at an unnatural angle, his open eyes staring eerily into space.

It’s so random and unexpected, I can’t help but feel as though justice has just occurred. He ordered someone to hit Sydni. Hard.

It’s as though unseen forces pushed him over and slammed his head into the corner of his marble table in retaliation. Like someone said, “You see how it feels.”

The unknown third person in the room is a scantily clad woman who looks like she just climbed out of bed. I recognize her immediately. She screams, “Cole! Cole!” and runs to his side, holding him, and kissing his cheek. “Wake up, baby, wake up.”

When he’s completely unresponsive, her wild eyes turn on me. “You! This is all your fault. What have you done?”

I don’t answer her. I’m already kneeling at Sydni’s side, gathering her tiny body into my arms. She’s unconscious and has a nasty wound on her head. It’s bleeding profusely, a large pool of red beneath her.

This is a strange scene. A separated married couple, only a few feet from each other, both seriously injured. The difference, however, is one did this to the other. And one did not.

My fingers search for Sydni’s pulse.

It’s there. It’s slow, but it’s there. She’s alive. Thank God.

I grab a white throw from Cole’s ridiculous sofa and apply pressure to her wound. I can already hear sirens approaching. Ryan’s the best of the best. He doesn’t waste a second messing around.

I look up at the sobbing woman holding Cole in her arms. “How could you, Hannah? She’s your sister.”

“She means nothing to me. Nothing! Do you hear me? She’s always in the way of my happiness. Her entire life. All she ever wanted was to torment me. She’s the evil one. Can’t you see it?”

“I see evil. I’m looking at it,” I spit.

“You’re under her spell too. She’s always playing the innocent act, the poor me act. The why-doesn’t-anyone-love-me act. Everyone falls for it. She’s good. No one sees her for what she really is except me. Her goal in life is my misery. Since the day she was born, she’s tried to steal all the attention for herself. When she didn’t get it, she’d walk around with her big, brown, puppy-dog eyes and try to make everyone feel sorry for her. Poor sad Sydni. She wanted Mom, but she can’t have her. She’s mine. Mine!” Hannah screams. “Mom is my best friend. We do everything together. Just me and Mom. Not Sydni. Sydni wouldn’t know the difference between cashmere and a Walmart sweater. Mom laughs about how clueless Sydni is. Sydni thinks getting her hair done is going to Supercuts. She’s hopeless. Cole married her just to be close to me. He’s always been mine. He loved me all along, not her. He was repulsed by her. And she never even suspected. Little Miss Innocent would never suspect a man could possibly leave her. Well, the joke’s on her. Cole is mine, and he always has been. That ridiculous fake girlfriend of his was just a smoke screen. And it worked. He’s mine!”

“He’s gone,” Ryan says as he gets to his feet after checking Cole’s pulse.

Hannah’s confused eyes look up at Ryan. “What?”

“He said he’s gone. Looks like he’s not yours anymore.” I don’t even care how callous I sound.

Hannah drops Cole with a thud and lunges at me with a primal roar. With her unkempt hair, it’s quite the sight.

She almost reaches me, but Ryan stops her midair, tackling her to the ground. The Blue Streak strikes again. That man moves faster than I’ve ever seen anyone move.

He handcuffs her while reading off her rights. Hannah continues to scream obscenities the entire time. The former beauty queen has lost all of her beauty, if there was ever an ounce inside her.

“You just killed Lily’s father! You’ve left my child fatherless. Don’t you get it? Lily is our child. He didn’t want the monstrosity growing inside of Sydni. He wanted my baby. Mine!” Hannah screams.

I’ll deal with that revelation later. I don’t care about Hannah. I care about the beautiful creature in my arms. She’s still unconscious, and my anxiety is through the roof.

Off to one side, I see the metal sculpture Hannah used to hit her sister on the head lying on the floor. It was intended to be a death blow, and Cole encouraged her.

The way he said, “Do it. Hard. As hard as you can,” will haunt me for the rest of my life.

They took Sydni completely unaware. She didn’t realize what was coming.

I cover her face with kisses. “Wake up, Sydni. Please wake up.”

She’s no longer bound to Cole through marriage. I can kiss her as much as I want.

But I want her to be awake for our first kiss. Very much awake and willing.