Chapter 47 Chapter 0047

Chapter 47 Chapter 0047
•RAFAEL•

The moment my lips met hers, every wall I had spent months building came crashing down at once.

She didn't push me away.

She kissed me back, and that was all I needed to pull her closer, to close every remaining inch between us until there was nothing left but her warmth against my chest and the faint sound of her breathing between kisses.

I had told myself I would let her go.

I had rehearsed it, prepared for it, convinced myself that watching her walk out of this house and out of my life was the only decent thing I had left to offer her.

It was the least I owed her after everything she had done for me. After all the nights I had reduced her to tears and told myself she deserved it.

But then she smacked my chest and cried and told me she could never be free from me, and every rehearsed word dissolved.

I walked her back slowly until she leaned against the edge of the desk, and she pulled me with her, her fingers curling into the front of my shirt.

"Rafael," she whispered against my mouth.

"Don't," I murmured back. "Don't say anything yet."

She didn't.

We giggled when she pulled away, and rested her forehead against mine.

I took her hand and sat with her on the couch facing the window, trying to calm myself from the thoughts of her body against mine since she was still in pains after the miscarriage.

She sat beside me on the narrow office couch I never used for anything except the rare nights I fell asleep over paperwork, her head resting against my shoulder, her breathing slow and even.

I kept my arm around her and stared at the ceiling and tried to remember the last time I had felt something close to peace.

"What are we going to do about my sister?" She asked, looking up at me. "It's clear she won't let you go. She told me to relocate with her because she knew she would return for you."

"I have already told her that you meant more to me than the vengeance I wanted against your family," I answered as she sat up on the couch. "You're bleeding now because you were carrying my child, Aneira. There's nothing I could ever do to repay you for carrying my seed."

"I know," she answered, sighing. "But there's no telling what Narra could do to have you to herself. If she could kill our mother for you, it means she can do anything for you to be hers."

My jaw tightened. I never wanted things to get that far. I never even planned to fight to be with Aneira, and the thought of hurting Narra was unbearable.

I had already done so much damage, and killing the last person who was family to Aneira would kill me.

But before I could answer her, someone knocked on the door.

Aneira looked at me and I could see the panic in her eyes. Her sister had killed her mother, and wouldn't hesitate to kill her as well to be with me.

"Rafael." A voice came from behind the door. "I know she's in there with you."

Narra.

I was on my feet before Aneira could speak, moving toward my jacket on the floor, reaching for what I kept in the inside pocket.

But the door opened before I reached it.

Narra stepped inside and the first thing I saw was the gun in her hand.

She looked nothing like the girl I had spoken to days ago. Her eyes were red and glassy, and her hand was steady.

She had been rehearsing this, the same way I had rehearsed letting Aneira go.

"Narra." Aneira stood up behind me, her voice barely above a whisper. "What are you doing?"

"He is supposed to choose me," Narra said, ignoring her and staring at me instead. "From the very beginning, he wanted me, and not you. I came here, I told him the truth, I removed every obstacle between us, but now he's choosing you. Why?"

"You killed your mother," I sneered. "What makes you think I'd want to be with you when you don't even have a heart for your own mother?"

"She kept me hidden from you, Rafael," Narra replied, her voice cracking. "She hid me so she could use Aneira instead. So she could hand her off and keep her hands clean. She deserved what happened to her."

"Narra." Aneira's voice broke. "We are sisters, please don't do this."

"You don't get to say my name." Narra's gaze snapped to her sister for the first time, and the gun followed. "You never fought for anything in your life. You just stood there and everything still came to you. My father's protection. His love. All of it. He preferred you to me!"

Her finger moved and I didn't think.

I stepped forward.

The shot was loud in the small room and the pain came a half second later, spreading from my side outward in a wave that dropped me to one knee before I could stop it.

I heard Aneira scream.

I heard Narra's sharp intake of breath, the sound of her shoes against the floor as she backed toward the door, and then the door itself opening and closing, and then nothing but Aneira's voice above me.

"Rafael." Her hands were on my face, my chest, pressing against the wound, and I could hear the panic breaking through every word. "Rafael, stay with me. Open your eyes."

I opened them.

She was blurry at the edges but I could see her, kneeling in front of me on the floor, tears running freely down her face.

I tried to speak.

I wanted to tell her again, once more, so she would have no reason left to doubt it.

But the room was growing dim and her voice was growing distant, and the last thing I felt was her hand pressed flat against my chest, warm and desperate, before everything went quiet.