Chapter 177\u00a0<\/p>\n
Athena\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cBut Jess wasn\u2019t weak,\u201d he said, almost conversationally.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cShe was healthy. Strong. She wouldn\u2019t have gone into labor early on her own. But your precious Seraphine made sure she did. She put it right in her tea, in\u00a0<\/p>\n
her seat, smiling while Jess drank it.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
My breath caught in my throat. The basement felt smaller suddenly, the walls pressing in from all sides. I could hear my heartbeat in my ears, loud and\u00a0<\/p>\n
erratic.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cYou\u2019re lying.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
The words came out weak, barely a whisper. Even as I said them, something deep in my chest told me he wasn\u2019t lying at all.\u00a0<\/p>\n
The way he stood there, so casual, so sure of himself, this wasn\u2019t the posture of someone spinning tales.\u00a0<\/p>\n
He was a monster, a demon in human form.\u00a0<\/p>\n
He crouched so close I could feel his breath against my cheek, warm and sickening.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u2018No. I was there,\u201d he said with a grin that made me want to claw his face until there was nothing left.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u2018I watched as the cramps started, watched her panic. She kept touching her belly, kept saying something was wrong. Within an hour, she was on the floor,\u00a0<\/p>\n
clutching herself and crying.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
I shook my head violently, chains rattling against the wall behind me.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u2018Stop it.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cWithin two hours, there was blood everywhere. Her precious husband and mate.was gone to a destination that was masterminded by me.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
My stomach twisted violently, bile rising in my throat. I pressed my back harder against the wall, wishing I could disappear into the stone itself.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u2018You should have seen her,\u201d he said, voice soft but deadly. \u201cShe tried to crawl to the phone, tried to reach someone, anyone \u2013 but she was too weak. Her legs wouldn\u2019t work right and she kept slipping in her own blood.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
I squeezed my eyes shut but that made it worse because now I could see it.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Jess, terrified, alone and bleeding while this monster watched.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cNo one came, I Seraphine made sure of that he continued, and I could hear the satisfaction in his voice. \u201cThere was no one to take her to the hospital. She bled right there on the dining room floor, calling for help that never came.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
Hot tears streamed down my face and I couldn\u2019t stop them. They burned tracks down my cheeks and dripped onto my lap.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u2018You didn\u2019t even help her, you both watched her bleed to her death I whispered.\u00a0<\/p>\n
The accusation hung between us and for a moment I thought maybe, just maybe, there was some humanity left in him that would make him deny it.\u00a0<\/p>\n
1\/2\u00a0<\/p>\n
15:25 Sat, Jan 10 GM\u00a0<\/p>\n
Chapter 177\u00a0<\/p>\n
Make him say he tried to help, that he called for someone, that he did something other than stand there and watch a pregnant woman die.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Instead, he smiled wider.\u00a0<\/p>\n
70\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cOf course not. That wasn\u2019t the point. The point was to let nature take its course with a little push from Seraphine\u2019s special tea blend. He tilted his head like he was remembering something pleasant.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cAnd I made sure to tell her why it was happening while she lay there. I told her it was because of you. That she was paying the price for your grief, for the way you still mourned Tristan even while warming my bed.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
The words hit me like physical blows. Each syllable was a knife twisting deeper into my chest.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cThat\u2019s not true,\u201d I voice came out in a broken sob. \u201cI never\u2026 I didn\u2019t even know her.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
My scream split the air, raw and shaking. It tore from my throat without permission, carrying all the horror and rage and helplessness I felt.\u00a0<\/p>\n
W\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cYou should have seen her face when I explained,\u201d he went on mercilessly. \u2018She kept saying it wasn\u2019t fair, that you didn\u2019t even know her, that she never did anything to hurt you. And she was right, but life isn\u2019t fair, is it?\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
I was sobbing seriously now, great heaving sobs that made my whole body shake. The chains around my wrists cut into my skin but I barely felt it.\u00a0<\/p>\n
WAY\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cShe begged me to help her,\u201d he said, crouching down again so he was at eye level with me. \u201cBegged me to call someone, to do something, anything. She said she was sorry for whatever she\u2019d done wrong.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Memories Drifted Into Soft Silence by Kyx Frost 177 Chapter 177\u00a0 Athena\u00a0 \u201cBut Jess wasn\u2019t weak,\u201d he said, almost conversationally.\u00a0 […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"site-sidebar-layout":"default","site-content-layout":"","ast-site-content-layout":"default","site-content-style":"default","site-sidebar-style":"default","ast-global-header-display":"","ast-banner-title-visibility":"","ast-main-header-display":"","ast-hfb-above-header-display":"","ast-hfb-below-header-display":"","ast-hfb-mobile-header-display":"","site-post-title":"","ast-breadcrumbs-content":"","ast-featured-img":"","footer-sml-layout":"","ast-disable-related-posts":"","theme-transparent-header-meta":"","adv-header-id-meta":"","stick-header-meta":"","header-above-stick-meta":"","header-main-stick-meta":"","header-below-stick-meta":"","astra-migrate-meta-layouts":"default","ast-page-background-enabled":"default","ast-page-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"ast-content-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-4)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-4)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-4)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"footnotes":""},"categories":[77],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-26334","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-the-second-gear-of-love-novel"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/kezpres.xyz\/novelreading\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/26334","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/kezpres.xyz\/novelreading\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/kezpres.xyz\/novelreading\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kezpres.xyz\/novelreading\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kezpres.xyz\/novelreading\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=26334"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/kezpres.xyz\/novelreading\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/26334\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/kezpres.xyz\/novelreading\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=26334"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kezpres.xyz\/novelreading\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=26334"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kezpres.xyz\/novelreading\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=26334"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}