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My breath catches.
"Kiss me, or I’ll shoot that pretty face.”
The urge to fight surges within me, but memories of the day I buried Peter flash before me, the day Andrew first used Henry as leverage to bend me to his will.
His hand presses against my back, forcing me closer to him, coercive, controlling. My lips hover just inches from his, eye to eye with a monster. His irises, so many shades of disturbingly calm blue, lock onto mine. His smile stretches grotesquely as I instinctively try to recoil. His grip is iron, unyielding.
“You’ll always remember this moment. Don’t you see, Poppy? I just took what they could never protect. Your mind. That’s more valuable to me than your heart,” he murmurs sinisterly, his lips grazing mine.
Then, in a swift, shocking movement, he redirects the gun from my cheek to his temple and seals his lips to mine.
Bang!
Chapter 48
Andrew
It was never about controlling or owning Poppy's body. Bodies are just flesh and blood; over time, they disintegrate. I wanted memories, a story that would last multiple lifetimes. That's what I will get. Our love will never die.
I remember when I first saw her. It was the day after my father told me he wanted me to marry Kimberly. Dad planned to announce it after I finished graduate school.
I felt trapped, like a pawn on his board.
I wanted my own board to control.
Then I saw Poppy. She was laughing, and her laughter sounded so sweet that, at first, I felt the urge to choke the life out of her. Her head was tipped back, coffee in hand, as she laughed with Harper at the campus coffee shop. A group of guys passed them; Harper, that whore flirted back, but Poppy, well, her pretty face turned red with blush, her eyes cast down in a shy manner.
It was stunning, like watching prey run into a bush to try and escape.
That's when I knew I wanted her. Not Kimberly.
I just had to plan everything out perfectly.
As I seduced Poppy, the power high I felt from controlling her mind was incredibly enticing. It consumed my thoughts. I craved more.
I wanted to make Poppy's thoughts her cage, and then I wanted to open that cage door when I thought she deserved it.
That was the ultimate game.
I won.
I'm the only one who has the key to that cage, and now, without me in her life, Poppy will never be free. Poppy will be locked away, forever tormented by this moment. Those who love her will suffer endlessly as they watch her mind erode. In the end, I'm confident she will decide to leave this world the same way I did. Then, we will finally be together again.
Chapter 49
Poppy
"Poppy, are you listening to me?" the therapist asks. Her voice is surprisingly upbeat, not clinical—kind of like she's trying to convince me to buy Girl Scout cookies, not discuss my crazy ex-boyfriend who blew his brains out in front of me.
"I know you want to leave and go home," she adds.
Somebody call up the committees that award Nobel Prizes because Dr. Peterson is a genius.
I don’t have a home. Andrew burned it; therefore, I have no home to go to, Dr. Peterson.
As for my life with Julian, well, it’s possible to love something broken but impossible to love something that isn’t here anymore. I checked out when Andrew’s brains went flying, when his blood landed on my lips, his body slumped dead, totally limp onto my lap.
He was really heavy. No more brain to tell his muscles to hold him up. Just a sack of skin, bones, blood...no longer brains.
