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Lahat ng Kabanata ng The Parachute He Gave Her: Kabanata 1 - Kabanata 9

9 Kabanata

Chapter 1

All because I refused to give the parachute to Wendy Shaw.The very next day, my husband tied our daughter to an unmanned plane with barely anything on her.I stared at him in disbelief, tears already falling."Adrian, have you lost your mind? You're willing to risk your own daughter's life over another woman?"His eyes were cold."Claire, if you hadn't insisted on giving the parachute to Annie, Wendy wouldn't have spent the whole night having nightmares."I'm putting Annie up there to toughen her up. It's for her own good."I couldn't understand how he could say something like that about our daughter.But the plane had already started rising. There was no time to argue."Adrian, if she falls, she'll die. I'm begging you. Let her down."If you're angry, take it out on me. If you want a divorce, I'll agree to that too."He gave me a disgusted glance, then turned to Wendy and asked whether her head still hurt.Something in me went cold.Annie's crying tore through me. In the

Chapter 2

I pulled Annie's shaking body into my arms and kept my voice soft."Sweetheart, don't be scared. Mommy will protect you."I strapped the only parachute onto her, then put myself between her and the open side of the plane.The wind tore at me. When I swayed, a trace of pity flashed in Adrian's eyes.Then the anger swallowed it."Claire, you'd throw your life away for her?"Fine. If you want to die that badly, let's see how long you last."I said nothing.Wendy was watching me, pleased with herself. I smiled at her without making a sound.Five years of marriage, and I had still never mattered as much as the woman he couldn't let go of.But I wanted to try one last time, for Annie and for myself."Adrian, are you really willing to kill us both?"If this plane goes down, neither you nor I have a parachute either. A little cold wind was never going to hurt Wendy."She's lying to you."He refused to believe it.He had already decided I was jealous, that I'd been scheming all a

Chapter 3

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 tak

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

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

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.

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

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

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

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