Library
Maghanap
Home / The Parachute He Gave Her / Chapter 3

Share

Chapter 3

Author: Sugarplum
Adrian looked at me without warmth.

"Claire, Annie is my daughter too. Do you really think I'd let her die?

"She just needs a small lesson, something to put a little backbone in her. Once Wendy has gotten it out of her system, I'll take her to the hospital."

I looked into his eyes and smiled without a sound.

He meant every word of it.

He was going to teach us a lesson, my daughter and me, for standing up for Wendy.

"Wendy. Name your terms. I only care that my daughter lives."

She hid behind Adrian and looked wounded.

She was stalling. She wanted my child to die.

Annie was barely breathing now. Looking at her cut me open.

Adrian's heart had always tilted one way.

Last year, Wendy scraped the skin off one finger. Adrian made me give blood, as much as they'd take out of me in a single sitting.

Afterward I found out what he'd done with it. He'd fed it to the dog.

When I asked him why, he looked at me without blinking.

"Claire, Wendy thinks your blood is dirty. She'll only take the best."

The year before that, Wendy scraped her cheek. Adrian poured scalding water over my face.

Her skin healed without a mark. I have the scar for good.

One injury after another, and eventually I understood him.

No mercy was ever coming from him.

With Adrian still watching coldly, I jumped from the plane.

He shouted.

I hit the ground hard. Blood spread out under me.

I dragged myself to Annie and exposed the bloodied wound on her forehead.

"Adrian, send someone. Get her to a hospital.

"Look at her. She's going to die."

My whole body was shaking. My voice was barely there.

Adrian's wife and daughter stood in front of him covered in blood.

His breath caught.

He reached down and lifted Annie into his arms.

Then Wendy cried out, sweet and thin.

"Adrian, my ankle's cut open. My chest hurts too.

"It's my fault. I'm always causing you trouble."

Adrian swept Wendy into his arms. He gave me one strained look.

"Claire, don't worry. I'll send people for you and Annie shortly.

"It's only a game. Nobody's actually going to die."

Annie's breathing was fading out. I broke.

I knelt on the ground holding her and begged him.

"Please. Take Annie first.

"Wendy is lying to you. There's nothing wrong with her."

Adrian's face went hard. He snapped at me for going too far.

Then he turned and walked away without looking at either of us again.

The emergency crews he promised never came.

By the time an ambulance reached us, Annie had no vital signs left.

I took out my phone and called the man who wanted Adrian ruined.

"You've been trying to bring Adrian Holt down, haven't you?

"Marry me. I'll help you."

Patuloy na basahin ang aklat na ito nang libre
I-scan ang code upang i-download ang App
Nakaraang Kabanata Susunod na kabanata

Pinakabagong kabanata

  • The Parachute He Gave Her   Chapter 9

    I made Adrian kneel at my daughter's grave and apologize to her.He wouldn't do it."Claire, if Annie were alive, she wouldn't want you turning into this."Adrian, lecturing me. The irony of it.I opened a video.Annie was standing at the edge of the garden, talking in that small serious way of hers."Mommy, if I give Daddy all these flowers, will he like me then?"When's Daddy going to take me to the amusement park? Katie and the others have all been. I'm the only one who hasn't."Mommy, does Daddy hate me? How come he never picks me up?"Her little voice went through him like a blade.The wind came across the cemetery, and only then did Adrian realize he was crying.His legs went out from under him and he dropped to his knees in front of her stone.He looked up at the small face on it.And it occurred to him, all at once, that he had never once reached out and held his daughter. Not a single time.When she called him, he sent it to voicemail.He told her he was busy wi

  • The Parachute He Gave Her   Chapter 8

    Adrian looked at Wendy with nothing in his eyes.I didn't interrupt.She took his hand and pressed it flat against her stomach."Adrian, everything I did was for our baby."I never meant for Annie to die. Don't be angry with me. Please?"He threw her hand off. His face was ice.It was the first time I'd ever seen him lose his temper with her."Wendy, you went too far."I no longer wanted to watch this unfold.I clapped my hands and told them to put the parachute on her."Mr. Holt has given the parachute to his wife. So put it on, Wendy, and jump."Her hands were shaking."Claire, you want me dead, don't you? You've done something to it."She turned to Adrian."Where are your bodyguards? Get them up here. She's going to let me fall."Wendy was carrying a Holt child, and even now it softened him."Claire, let her go. She's pregnant."I didn't answer.I held half of Holt Group in my hands, and I was making him choose."If Wendy won't do it, then I assume these shares do

  • The Parachute He Gave Her   Chapter 7

    On the day Adrian married Wendy, I walked in with Victor on my arm.Adrian reached out to touch my face."Claire, why would you fake your death? Did it never occur to you I'd be worried?"The hypocrisy was almost impressive.I laughed at him and asked him one thing."Annie is dead. Do you believe me now?"His fingers stopped in the air.I closed the distance and slapped him backhanded across the face."That one is for my daughter."Adrian Holt, you never deserved to be her father."His arms went slack at his sides.He hadn't understood how much I hated him.I clapped my hands, and the screen above the stage lit up with a video of the two of them wound together.The date on it was from while I was carrying Annie.The room broke into noise."So much for the devoted husband and father.""Everyone knew he had a first love he kept on a pedestal. He made his wife's life hell over her."Adrian moved toward the booth to stop it.He couldn't.The screen changed, and there was

  • The Parachute He Gave Her   Chapter 6

    Adrian learned I was dead late that night.A phone with a shattered screen had been recovered, and with it the engraved gold bracelet everyone in his world knew belonged to Mrs. Holt. He couldn't argue with that.He called the housekeeper."I told you to keep an eye on her. Didn't I tell you?"His eyes were bloodshot. Something violent sat underneath the anger.Then he remembered our daughter."Go check on Annie. Don't tell her about her mother."Gerald hesitated."Sir, Annie died. Mrs. Holt brought her ashes home."But yesterday Miss Shaw wanted to plant something, and you gave her the urn to use for it."Adrian refused to believe it.He refused to believe our daughter was dead, and he refused to believe he'd been the one who killed her.The pain went through his chest like a needle, and he couldn't think of a single thing that would make it stop.That night, Adrian got drunk and called my number over and over again.Nobody answered.Eventually he laughed at the phone.

  • The Parachute He Gave Her   Chapter 5

    Then Victor called.Everything was in place. My identity had been struck from the records Adrian's people would search.The car he'd sent was waiting outside.Just before I left, Wendy started retching."Adrian, if I count the days right, I think we're having a baby."He went tense and wanted to take her to the hospital immediately.I stepped out of the way.I watched without any expression at all.Panic flashed through him. He caught my wrist without thinking."Claire, don't take it the wrong way."Even if Wendy is pregnant, we'll give the baby to you to raise."It was a thin thing to say, and it sounded like it.I shook my head."There's no need, Adrian."My daughter is dead. Your child with Wendy is the one who should matter now."There was something I'd never bothered to tell him.The moment Annie died, my marriage ended.When I didn't react, his face turned cold.He opened his feed and posted a photo of the proposal, with a caption."What I wanted and couldn't h

  • The Parachute He Gave Her   Chapter 4

    After I collected Annie's ashes, I went home.Adrian was making dinner for Wendy.I remembered how much he hated the smell of cooking oil. Even at eight months pregnant, I had been the one in the kitchen, every time.Now he stood there washing and chopping for her, perfectly willing.Before, I would have confronted him.There was no point anymore.My daughter was dead. Whatever was in me had died with her.I moved past him. He frowned and called after me."Claire, what's with the face?"Is Annie still sulking and refusing to come home? I was toughening her up. It wasn't going to kill her."I smiled."She's dead. Adrian, are you happy now?"His brows drew together and his voice dropped. He told me to stop playing the fragile little wife.He didn't care whether our daughter was alive or dead.Wendy stepped in with her practiced concern."Claire's just exhausted, Adrian. Don't be hard on her."Something in me snapped.I got my hands around Wendy's throat and wouldn't let

Higit pang Kabanata

Maaari mong magustuhan

Galugarin at basahin ang magagandang nobela
Libreng basahin ang magagandang nobela sa GoodNovel app. I-download ang mga librong gusto mo at basahin kahit saan at anumang oras.
Libreng basahin ang mga aklat sa app
I-scan ang code para mabasa sa App
DMCA.com Protection Status