Elaine’s POV
I can’t let this continue, i just can’t.
My eyes move from face to face.
Zane, lucas, Aria and Thomas.
Every single person standing here is seconds away from making a decision they’ll regret for the rest of their lives.
I can see it, feel it. The tension is so thick it feels almost impossible to breathe.
Thomas is unraveling, Zane is hanging on by a thread and Lucas looks one wrong word away from launching himself across the clearing.
And all around us are ard security n with fingers dangerously close to triggers.
One mistake, one sudden movent and sobody dies.
The thought makes feel sick.
No. Not tonight....i refuse.
I’ve lost too many people already.
Margaret, my parents...the years Aria lost.
Everything Thomas beca.
I can’t stand here and watch another tragedy unfold. Especially not when my family is finally together again.
My hand unconsciously drifts to my stomach.
The baby.
God.
I need to get us out of this....all of us.
Thomas is still talking, still staring at Zane completely trapped in the weight of his own confession. For the first ti since this started, he isn’t paying attention to and that’s when the idea cos.
A terrible and reckless idea.
The kind of idea that would make Zane lose his mind if he knew what I was thinking. Which is exactly why I don’t give myself ti to think.
Because if I do...i won’t do it. Slowly and Carefully, i take a step.
Nobody notices as i take a step....Thomas is too focused on Zane, too focused on the past and on the pain he’s carried for years.
I move again.
My pulse is hamring so hard I can hear it in my ears.
Please work.
Please. Please....i just need to get a little closer.
The gun is still in his hand, still pointed generally toward Aria.
I swallow and take one more step.
Then another.
I hear Aria saying sothing, hear Lucas respond and Zane speaking.
But the words blur together.....My entire focus narrows to one thing.
The gun.
Just get the gun. That’s it.
Then this can end, nobody has to die....maybe we’ll Thomas can die, ion give a rats shit about him anymore, he’s hurt and my family enough.
I’m close enough now, clse enough to see the slight tremor in Thomas’s hand, close enough to sll the smoke lingering from the warning shot he fired, close enough to do sothing.
So I do.
I lunge.
"ELAINE!"
Zane’s voice explodes across the clearing....too late.
My arms wrap around Thomas from behind.
One hand grabbing for his wrist, the one holding the gun. Cor a split second he freezes, completely shocked.
"What the....."
Then chaos erupts as Thomas twists violently, the gun jerks.
I cling to his arm with everything I have.
"LET GO!"
"No!"
The world becos a blur of movent.
Branches, shouting, hands and Bodies. Everything happening so fast and slow at the sa ti.
Thomas tries to rip free but I hold on so he stumbles backward and I stumble with him.
The gun swings wildly between us, sowhere nearby I hear Aria scream and Zane shouting with Security moving.
But none of it feels real, only the struggle.
"Elaine, stop!"
"No!"
I tighten my grip, till my fingers ache and my arms burn but I refuse to let go, not now.
Thomas suddenly slams backward, the impact nearly knocks the breath from my lungs as pain shoots through my shoulder still I don’t release him.
I grab harder.
Both of us desperately fighting for control of the weapon.
His breathing becos ragged.
Mine too.
"You’re going to get hurt!"
"Then drop the gun!"
His elbow catches my side.
I gasp and my grip slips slightly.
But slightly is enough.
The gun jerks upward, then sideways. Neither of us fully controlling it anymore.
Just fighting and pulling desperate.
I hear footsteps charging toward us.
Zane. He’s coming, I know he is.
Thomas knows it too and for one split second his attention flickers away from .
Toward Zane and that’s when I make my move.i grab his wrist with both hands and yank down with everything I have.
The gun goes off, the sound is deafening....a single violent crack then silence.
For one horrible mont I don’t understand what happened as wverything stops and slows.
Thomas freezes and I freeze too cause My ears ring, my heart pounds and then a strange warmth spreads through my side.
Confusion washes over until I look down then I see it and my breath catches.
"Oh."
The word leaves softly, almost stupidly, like my brain can’t quite process it.
Across from Thomas’s face loses all color, completely. His eyes widen, horror replacing every other emotion.
"Elaine..."
The gun slips from his hand and hits the ground.
Nobody moves or even dares to breathe.
Then I hear the most terrifying sound I’ve ever heard.
Zane saying my na. Not shouting or angry.
Terrified, absolutely terrified and suddenly he’s there..closing the last distance between us just as my knees begin to give way.
The world tilts. One second I’m standing, the next my knees don’t seem to rember how to work anymore.
My ears are ringing so loudly I can barely hear anything else. I just stare down at myself disoriented.
Then I hear my na but it seems like it’s so far away.
"Elaine!"
I’ve heard Zane say my na a thousand different ways.
Angry, amused, teasing, loving...but never like this. Never with this kind of terror.
Suddenly he’s there, one second several feet away the next he’s catching before I hit the ground.
His arms wrap around strongly.
"Hey, hey, hey..."
His voice is shaking and his hands are shaking.
Everything about him is shaking.
"No. No. No."
I blink up at him.....His face is pale, far paler than mine probably is.
"Zane..."
"Don’t talk."
His hand presses against my side, trying to stop the bleeding.
His jaw is clenched so tightly I think he might crack a tooth.
"Sobody call a dic!"
The roar tears from him.
"NOW!"
The clearing explodes into movent with people shouting and running.
But all I can focus on is him and the look in his eyes. I’ve never seen him look afraid before.
Not truly afraid....Until now.
"Look at ."
His voice breaks.
"Look at , baby."
I do Imdiately.
His forehead presses briefly against mine, like he’s checking that I’m still here, still breathing and alive.
And for the first ti since I’ve known him...Zane looks completely helpless, like there’s nothing he can do to fix thi and it’s killing him.
Behind him I hear another voice.
Thomas.
"Oh God."
His voice sounds wrecked.
"Oh God..."
I turn my head slightly to find Thomas is staring at . The gun long forgotten on the ground.
"I didn’t..."
His voice cracks.
"I didn’t an..."
Aria is staring at him too, tears streaming down her face.
Because whatever Thomas intended... Whatever revenge he thought he wanted...
It was never supposed to end like this.
"I didn’t want to hurt her."
Nobody answers him cause he kidnapped though, he put in this situation in the first place.
Lucas slowly kicks the gun farther away, his expression unreadable.
"I didn’t an to I swear...." Thomas says like a broken record.
His voice gets quieter.
"I swear."
For the first ti since all of this started...He looks defeated.
A sudden wave of panic crashes through
My baby.....Oh God.
The baby.
My hand imdiately flies to my stomach.
The movent catches Zane’s attention.
His eyes follow and I see the exact mont he understands, fear flashes across his face.
"Zane..."
My voice cos out smalls and barely audible.
"Our baby."
The words nearly destroy him....i can see it, his eyes squeeze shut briefly. Like he’s physically fighting to hold himself together.
"Our baby..."
The sentence dies in my throat, because I can’t finish it. I don’t know if everything is okay, I don’t know anything.
And suddenly that’s all that matters ..this little one growing inside .
Please.
Please be okay.
Zane cups my face imdiately, forcing to look at him...to keep looking at him.
"Hey."
His voice is fierce despite the fear.
"Look at ."
I do Instantly.
"Everything is going to be okay."
His eyes are glossy now, suspiciously glossy.
But he keeps talking anyway.
"You hear ?"
I nod weakly. Not because I fully believe him but because ecause I need to, because he needs to.
"The baby is okay."
His thumb brushes my cheek.
"The baby is okay."
Another nod.
"We’re getting you to a hospital."
His voice cracks a little.
"So stop trying to think about anything else."
I want to argue, want to ask questions, want to demand reassurance.
Instead exhaustion crashes over ....and my eyelids feel impossible to keep open.
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