James is still slapping me like a bitch and I am taking every blow and losing the strength to press forward. I keep repeating to myself, ‘I can do this’ as every blow seems to hurt less as my face grows numb. Blood is dripping down into my mouth and I know if I don’t get to that hanger within the next few seconds, I am going to be out cold. All of a sudden he stops and his gaze follows my hand as I reach for the hanger.

“Fucking cunt!” he bellows loudly. “You can’t outsmart me. You really must have me pegged for a fool.”

He pulls his gun out from the back of his pants and shoves it into my mouth. My eyes go wide and I know any minute he is going to pull the trigger. I whimper in protest.

“That’s what I thought.” He leans in and starts kissing my cheeks. “It’s too bad this pretty little face had to end up this way. Such a mess you are, Clove. I give you a shit ton of credit for trying to fight me, but the game is over, starting now.”

He removes the gun from my mouth and places it back into the waistband of his pants. I can’t move and I can barely see through my swollen eyes, but I do feel him shift his body slightly lower until his hands rest on my lower abdomen.

“Give up, Clove. I have you right where I want you. You can’t escape. It’s no use. There isn’t anyone alive in here but me and you, and soon you will be dead, too. Now, I am going to take, and you’re going to give.”

I have no fight left in me as I feel him undo my jeans and yank my pants down. But then, I hear words from directly behind me. Words coming from a voice I recognize so well.

“Get off of my wife.”

James’ hands stop in midair as he looks up and his face shows stunned disbelief.

“I won’t say it again. Get off of her.”

Turner’s voice is welcome to my ears, even though he sounds so weak and fragile.

“Fucking hell, boy. I should have known your brother wouldn’t kill you like he was told.”

James stands and straightens to his full height.

Slowly I get up and pull my pants back on in slow motion as I turn to look at Turner standing up against the wall with a gun pointed shakily in James’ direction.

“You can’t pull that trigger, you’re too much of a fucking pussy to do it, aren’t you Momma’s boy? Always the one who could never do a damn thing for himself, aren’t I right boy?” he taunts.

“No, DAD. You’re not.”

And then the gun goes off as I turn from Turner to James and watch him stumble backwards. He manages to stay upright until the next bullet hits him square between the eyes. A shocked expression remains on his face as he crumples to the floor with a thud.

I stand there with my mouth hanging open for several beats. I turn to Turner with relief, wanting to wrap him in my arms and just hold him for a moment to celebrate that our nightmare is over. But before I can even take one step toward him, the roar of another gunshot slices through the air and Turner slumps to the floor at my feet.

“NOOOOOO!”

I throw myself down beside him as he lies on his side, bleeding from a wound in his chest. He reaches out weakly and grabs my hand.

              “Y-you need to get out of here and call for h-help.”

He can barely get the words out and his eyes flutter closed and then open again.

“No! I can’t leave you like this. Can you get up?” I whisper.

“I don’t think I can, baby. I d-don’t think I am going to make it.”

His eyes drift closed again and this time they don’t open back up. I start shaking him and screaming at him to wake up, my tears flowing like a river dripping down onto his face. He’s limp and lifeless lying before me.

“He’s dead, Clove.”

I hear a sound coming from the shadows in the other room. I must be going crazy. I look up and there standing before me with a gun in his hands is Trent. What in the motherfucking hell is going on?

              “Trent. I . . . he . . . he said you were dead! Your dad said he killed you!”

What the hell is happening here? I don’t know how to react or what to do. My husband is dead? God, no. He’s not. I refuse to believe it, and yet I cannot seem to lift my head or open my eyes. I don’t even remember closing them.

              “Clove.”

I feel Trent’s cold, clammy hands rest on my arms and I scream, crawling into the corner of the hallway. I pull myself up on legs that feel like rubber as he moves closer to me and boxes me in, pinning me with his glare.

Time freezes for one fleeting moment and everything that has happened to me comes back in a flash of agonizing reality. This brutal son of a bitch has flipped my world into a deep abyss of darkness.

I let out a growl. He played me. This motherfucker played me again. Rage builds up inside of me and I push him as hard as I can. I watch him stumble backwards and grasp the side of the wall to keep him from falling.

“WHAT HAVE YOU DONE?” I point my finger to the floor at my husband’s body lying there, still not able to look at him. Tears stream down my face and what pieces of my heart were left are broken when I truly realize that Turner took his last breath saving my life.

“He was in the way of me and you. I had to shoot him, Clove. I had to.”

Trent’s lips tilt up into an amused smirk, bitterness dripping from his words like the sound of pouring rain.

              “You motherfucker! I told you I will never be with you. EVER! You’re a liar and a thief and now you have murdered the man I love, and yet somewhere in your sick, perverted head you still think I want to be with you? Fuck you! I will never be with you. I will never love you. You mean nothing to me. Do you hear me? NOTHING!”

I don’t want to be here in this life anymore. The smell of blood assaults my nostrils at next intake of breath from the puddles of blood by both Turner and James. Red. I see red as I look to the floor one last time and I know now what I am going to do as I see my love and his life that was ended way before it should have been. The one man I ever loved is gone and the man I hate is now beside me extending his hand to me.

I just don’t know what the hell is happening here. I thought Trent was dead and I put all the energy I had left into either killing or hurting James badly enough to be able to escape. Now I have nothing left. Absolutely nothing at all as I see Trent’s hand begging me to come to him.

“You’re coming with me,” he says before I collapse to the floor.

I shake my head ‘no’ as he moves closer to me. I reach out my hand and my fingers close around the coat hanger I took from his room.

              “I will not live my life in hell or with a man who took my husband’s life. You’ve lived in hell your entire life, and my guess is you love it there. So while I spend eternity with my husband, I hope you rot in hell, and it’s the worst type of pain to ever be inflicted on your blackened soul.”

I twist open the top half of the hanger and the last words that come out of my mouth before Trent can make it to me on time are,

“FUCK YOU.”

And I plunge the end of the hanger straight through my broken heart.

Epilogue

I wake up screaming wildly and bolt upright in bed, thrashing around violently as if I am trying to protect myself. It’s daylight and the sun is shining through the blinds as my eyes dart around my bedroom.

              “Oh my God. I am in my room. This can’t be. How did I get here?”

My hands start frantically touching and pinching at my skin to see if I am dreaming. I’m not. I really am in my bed. Did I survive? There is no way I could have. I killed myself in order to be with Turner. I try and bring my knees up to my chest and they barely move. Am I paralyzed now? And why is the bed all wet underneath me? Flipping off the covers in a hurry, I stare down in shock as my eyes land on my very large, pregnant belly.