Chapter 151: Chapter Hundred

Arian

“She has a gun.” The voice in my head whispered fearfully. “She has a fucking gun.”

Cold sweat broke out across my face, and every breath felt like a battle. My chest tightened painfully, and all I could think about was how much I hated guns—hated seeing them, hated hearing them—because I’d lived among men who treated violence like an art form.

Gun-toting, knife-wielding bastards like Rafael and his men had shaped a decade of my life into something dark and suffocating. I’d prayed to God, over and over, that I’d never have to see a gun again when I came to this country.

But there I was, standing in front of a woman with one pointed straight at us. And the cruel irony? I’d once taken a bullet for the man now trying to protect me.

Gabriel moved in front of me, his broad shoulders shielding me from his ex-wife’s murderous glare. He was trying to reason with her, to calm her down, his voice steady but urgent. But I could already see it—his words weren’t reaching her. They never would.

“Did you think I was joking when I told you I’d kill you and the woman you chose over me?” Lucille spat, her eyes wild and gleaming. “How stupid of you to think I’d accept defeat, Gabriel Cruz! You’re mine. No one else’s.”

My hands began to tremble, partly from fear and partly from disbelief. Where the hell were Mrs. Cruz and her daughter when their psychotic relative was waving a gun around? They’d tried to paint me as the unstable one, the one who needed to be institutionalized just for sleeping with Gabriel.

If only they knew—the real lunatic had been under their noses all along. It was by the grace of God alone that Gabriel had survived his marriage to her. She was the one who needed to be locked up, not me.

“This is how you want to ruin your life, Lu?” Gabriel’s voice softened, even as he stayed protectively in front of me. “Do you think you’ll get away with this?”

Lucille tilted her head, a ghost of a smile touching her lips. “I’m not only here to kill you, Gabriel. I’m going to kill your girlfriend too. And then…” she paused, almost serenely, “I’ll kill myself.”

I wanted to scream, to tell Gabriel to stop talking, to just let her say whatever she wanted. But he didn’t.

“And you think if there’s an afterlife,” he said bitterly, “I’d choose you then? I wouldn’t go near you even if I lost my damn mind, Lu.”

I whimpered softly, tugging at the hem of his suit jacket. My fingers clenched the fabric as panic clawed at me. Why was he provoking her? Couldn’t he see she was ready to shoot? I’d been face-to-face with death too many times to count, but this time felt different. I didn’t want to die—not now. Not when I still hadn’t told him the truth. He deserved to know that I was Kareena—his Kareena.

“It’ll be in your best interest to—” Gabriel’s words were cut off by a deafening bang-bang-bang. Gunshots. Close. Too close.

“What the hell?” he rasped, spinning toward the sound.

Lucille froze, fear flickering across her face for the first time. Someone else was out there. Someone with guns—plural. She stepped farther into the room, keeping the weapon trained on Gabriel.

Then the door crashed open. And in that instant, my world stopped.

A tall figure filled the doorway, both hands gripping Glocks with the ease of a man who’d spent his life pulling triggers.

Rafael. Freaking. Navarro.

The air left my lungs. The panic attack I’d been fighting off slammed into me full-force. My vision blurred, my chest tightened, and I could hear my heartbeat drumming in my ears. I couldn’t breathe. I couldn’t move.

Gabriel turned when he heard my wheezing breaths. His eyes widened in alarm as he reached back, grabbing my hand. His thumb rubbed slow circles against my palm. “Hey, hey, it’s okay,” he murmured under his breath, voice low and soothing.

Then he began to hum softly—some melody I didn’t recognize, but it grounded me, pulled me back from the edge. Just enough to keep me from blacking out.

“Well, well, well,” Rafael drawled, stepping inside with a grin that made my blood run cold. “Look who we have here. My little informant, the bastard trying to steal my wife, and the girl who thought she could run. You should’ve known better, Arian. I only went to prison—not to hell.”

My heart plummeted. I stared at Lucille, realization dawning like an explosion. She had revealed my location to Rafael.

Oh, God. We were all going to die.

I grabbed Gabriel’s hand with both of mine, squeezing tightly, my lips moving in desperate prayer. I couldn’t die today. Not before telling him the truth. Not before making things right.

It was my birthday, for crying out loud.

“Drop the gun and pass it to me,” Rafael ordered Lucille, his tone sharp enough to cut glass.

She hesitated only for a second before complying, dropping the gun and kicking it toward him. He placed a boot over it, smirking in satisfaction.

And just like that, we weren’t two sitting ducks anymore. We were three.

A small, bitter part of me couldn’t help thinking—maybe justice had a twisted sense of humor after all.

“I’ll give you credit for being so brave,” Rafael said, his tone dripping with mock admiration. “Move, pendejo. I want to see her stupid face.” He ordered Gabriel with a smirk that made my stomach twist.

“That isn’t up for discussion.” Gabriel shook his head, firm and unyielding. “You’ll have to kill me first.”

Rafael chuckled darkly. “I’ll make that your reality soon enough,” he assured him, his voice low and cruel. “But not now. Now… move.”

Gabriel hesitated—God, always trying to protect me even when death was staring us down. My heart ached for him. But I couldn’t hide behind him forever. So I made the choice for both of us. I stepped out from behind him and stood in front, meeting Rafael’s eyes head-on.

Gabriel’s fingers tightened around my hand, as if silently pleading with me not to do this, but he didn’t pull me back.

“Here I am, Rafa,” I said, surprised by how steady my voice sounded when my insides were trembling. “You found me.”

“Indeed,” he replied, his lips curving into that same lascivious smile I used to dread. “You’re even more beautiful than I remember. And I never once forgot you, mi amor.”

The endearment made my skin crawl. I’d felt beautiful before he appeared—strong, maybe even free. But under his gaze, all that confidence shriveled into disgust. His eyes roamed over me like I was something to be consumed, not cherished, and suddenly, I wanted to peel off my skin just to rid myself of the feeling.

“How did you escape?” I asked, forcing calm into my voice. “Wait, let me guess—you paid some guards, didn’t you?”

“That’s correct,” he said, with a cold, humorless chuckle. “It was easy, really. They started a fire in my block, made it impossible to contain the inmates, and then a riot broke out. I used the tunnels to get out. Simple.”

“I see.” I nodded slowly, trying to suppress the shiver crawling up my spine. For some strange reason, I didn’t feel as afraid anymore. Maybe it was the exhaustion, or maybe the part of me that had endured every vile thing this man did had finally fused with the part that had vowed to destroy him. I was no longer the trembling girl he’d once owned.

He’d kill me—of that, I was sure—but at least I’d die standing. Not as his victim, but as a woman who fought back. Gabriel had shown me what love really was—kind, patient, selfless. Rafael’s love was none of those things. It was greed wearing affection as a mask. And I was done being his possession.

“Then get on with it,” I said, lifting my chin. “You’ve wanted to kill me for years. This is your chance.”

I gestured toward my chest, my free hand trembling slightly but steady enough to make my point.

Rafael looked startled for a heartbeat, then recovered with a smirk that curdled my blood. Gabriel’s grip on my hand tightened again—his silent plea screaming louder than words—but I didn’t back down.

“It’ll be too easy,” Rafael mused, his voice almost playful. “I’ll kill your fiancé first, make you watch the light leave his eyes… and then I’ll enjoy fucking you into oblivion before I kill you. I won’t use a gun, though.”

My heart stuttered, but I refused to give him the satisfaction of seeing fear. “I’ve had worse,” I said, my voice dry, steady. “You killed Matteo, remember? You thought his death would break me. It nearly did. I had nightmares for years, but I learned to live again. Do your worst, Rafael.”

He lowered his hands for a moment, and I almost believed he might actually put the guns away. But then he raised them again—both this time—aimed directly at me. For a fleeting second, his face softened, his gray eyes flickering with something like pain. Then it was gone, replaced by that familiar, twisted darkness.

“We could’ve been happy if you’d loved me,” he said. “Why didn’t you love me, Arian?”

I almost laughed. The question was so absurd it hurt. “That’s like asking me to love the devil,” I told him quietly. “You’re a bad man, Rafael. A monster who destroys everything he touches. If you’d ever truly loved me, you would’ve let me go.”

“I’m not a selfless person,” he reminded me coldly. “I always take what I want. My love for you turned into poison the day I realized I’d never tie you down completely with a child. You were useless to me.”

My lips curled into a bitter smile. “Yet here you are—still wanting to kill me. Funny how the useless ones haunt you the most.” My tone dripped with sarcasm. “You could’ve had any woman, Rafael. Someone who’d give you the heir you wanted. But no—you had to destroy me instead.”

He gave a small shrug, like he was recalling an old memory. “Maybe. But I saw you at that party and decided I had to have you. You were what—sixteen?”

My stomach twisted at the memory. “There were other women there. Older. Beautiful. More mature.” I knew reasoning with him was pointless, but I’d carried that question for years. I had to ask. "Why me?"

“You were more innocent than they were,” he said simply, a cruel smile playing on his lips. “I wanted to be the first to touch that innocence. That’s why I went to your parents and told them I wanted you. They knew better than to argue.”

His smugness burned through me like acid.

Oh, how he loved his own lies.

He thought he still had power over me. He didn’t realize he’d already lost it the moment I stopped fearing him.

Well, it was time to burst his bubble—once and for all.

But first things first…