CHAPTER 24: THE SHOT

Damien stepped in front of Emma without thinking.

Claire's hand shook as she held the gun but her eyes were focused. She wasn't going to miss.

"Don't do this," Damien said.

"You left me no choice," Claire replied. She was staring at him like he was the only person in the room, like Emma didn't exist at all.

Emma grabbed his arm and tried to pull him back but he wouldn't move.

"I gave you everything," Claire continued. "I protected you. I loved you. And you chose her."

"I chose someone I actually love," Damien said. "There's a difference between obsession and love."

Claire's finger tightened on the trigger.

Emma yanked Damien backward just as the shot went off. The bullet missed him by inches and shattered the window behind them.

"Run," Damien said, pushing Emma toward the bedroom.

But Emma was already moving. She grabbed a lamp from the side table and threw it at Claire. It missed but it was enough to make Claire hesitate.

In that hesitation, Damien lunged forward and tackled her.

They crashed onto the floor. The gun skidded across the hardwood. Claire was stronger than she looked and she fought dirty, clawing at his face, trying to get to the gun.

Emma ran to grab it but Claire kicked her legs out from under her. Emma fell hard, the air knocked out of her lungs.

Damien had Claire pinned but she was still fighting, still screaming, still trying to get loose. He managed to get to his phone with one hand and call 911.

"I need police. Someone's tried to shoot us," he said, gasping for air.

Claire laughed. Actually laughed while he held her down.

"You think the police will stop me?" she said. "I've been planning this for years. Years, Damien. I've thought about every way this could go."

Emma pushed herself up from the floor, her lungs burning.

"You're crazy," Emma said.

Claire turned her head to look at Emma. Her eyes were wild.

"I'm not crazy," Claire said. "I'm in love. There's a difference."

Sirens were already wailing in the distance. Damien kept Claire pinned to the ground while she continued to struggle and scream.

When the police arrived, they found Claire still fighting, still talking about how much she loved Damien, still insisting that Emma had ruined everything.

They handcuffed her and read her rights but she wasn't listening. She was looking at Damien the entire time they took her away.

"I'll get out of this," she called back as they led her from the apartment. "And when I do, I'll be waiting for you."

The door closed and suddenly it was quiet.

Damien sat down on the couch like his legs had stopped working. Emma moved to him and he pulled her close, pressing his face into her neck.

"She could have killed you," he said.

"She didn't," Emma replied.

"But she could have. If you hadn't pulled me back, if that lamp had distracted her a second longer, if anything had been different," Damien continued, "she could have killed you."

Emma didn't know what to say to that because it was true.

The police stayed for another hour taking statements. They collected the gun as evidence. They photographed the broken window. They asked questions Emma couldn't fully answer because everything had happened so fast.

When they finally left, the apartment felt violated. Like the walls themselves had been damaged.

Damien sat on the couch and didn't move for a long time.

Emma made tea but he didn't drink it. She sat beside him and they didn't talk because there wasn't anything to say.

Around midnight, Emma's phone rang. It was the hospital.

"Is this Emma Chen?" a woman's voice asked.

"Yes," Emma said.

"We have your brother Tyler here. He was brought in about an hour ago," the woman said. "He was found in his apartment overdosed on prescription pills."

Emma's entire body went numb.

"Is he alive?" she managed to ask.

"He's stable," the woman said. "But he's in critical condition. We need you to come to the hospital."

Emma hung up and looked at Damien.

"Tyler took an overdose," she said.

Damien stood immediately. "Let's go."

They drove to the hospital in silence. Emma stared out the window trying to process what was happening. Claire was in police custody. Tyler was in critical condition. Everything was falling apart.

When they arrived at the hospital, a doctor met them in the waiting room.

"He's awake," the doctor said. "He's asking for you."

Emma went to his room alone. Tyler looked smaller in the hospital bed, like the life had been drained out of him.

"Em," he said when he saw her. His voice was barely a whisper.

"Don't talk," Emma said.

"I'm sorry," Tyler said. "I'm so sorry for everything. I couldn't live with what I'd done. I couldn't live with what I'd become."

Emma pulled a chair close to his bed and sat down.

"Why did you do it?" she asked.

"Because I realized what I'd cost you," Tyler said. "I realized that you nearly died because of me. That you suffered for months because I lied to you."

Tears were streaming down his face now.

"And I couldn't take it anymore," he continued. "I couldn't live knowing that."

Emma took his hand and held it.

Emma hung up and looked at Damien. Her legs felt weak. Tyler had always been the dependent one, the one she had to save. And now he'd tried to take his own life because he couldn't live with the guilt of what he'd done to her. The irony wasn't lost on her. She'd married a stranger to save him and it had nearly destroyed both of them. Now he was in a hospital bed fighting for his life while Claire was in police custody and Emma sat between them, caught in the middle of everyone else's crisis. "Let's go," Damien said, already grabbing his keys. But Emma couldn't move. She couldn't process the fact that Tyler had overdosed. She couldn't understand how everything had spiraled so completely out of control in such a short amount of time.