Page 225 of The Heart You Kept

I never imagined that it could be like this. So in tune with each other that it’s like he’s an extension of me.

We’re inseparable, so in love and haven’t spent a single night apart. My second bedroom has somehow turned into his wardrobe, it’s filled with designer suits, shirts, and shoes. I have a stupidly expensive Aston Martin in my garage and Rolex watches just lying around in my bathroom.

It feels so natural and right, we laugh and talk about everything and yet at the same time nothing at all.

EDWARD

Bang.

My eyes flutter as my sleep is disturbed by an echo in the distance.

Bang.

I roll onto my side in the darkness.

Bang.

My eyes spring open, what the hell was that?

I reach over and grab my phone off the nightstand to see the time.

3:08 a.m.

Bang…. It’s coming from downstairs.

The hell?

Someone’s in the house.

I sit up and reach over to wake Alora; her side of the bed is empty. Where is she?

Bang….

My eyes dart around in a panic and I get up, tiptoe to the bathroom, and flick the light on. She’s not in here, and then I see it. A large droplet of blood on the bathroom floor.

Fuck.

My heart begins to pump and I pull on a pair of boxer shorts and slowly slide open the bedside drawer and grab the gun from the black bag.

Adrenaline screams through my veins as I pull back the slide and cock the gun. I go to the door and peer around the corner. Lights are on downstairs.

Bang.

I hold the gun up and walk down the stairs, if they’ve touched a hair on her head I swear to god….

I make my way to the second level and check the bedrooms, in one of the bedrooms the window is open and the curtains are blowing in the wind. I creep down the next flight of stairs, the lights are on and my eyes fly around.

“Alora,” I call.

Silence….

“Alora.”

I can hear water running in the bathroom and my heart hammers in my chest.

Am I going to find her body in there? Is she dead in the bathtub…? Is this some fucked-up scene from a horror movie?

Holding the gun to my chest, I walk toward the bathroom.