Bared: A King's Hart Novel Book 3 (BWWM)

XXI: A Perfect Triangle

Nuri. 

This bitch is demented. She's determined to see me dead and I was sure she wouldn't stop until I was. 

The front door crashed open and she disappeared from in front of me. I struggled to turn while clutching my stomach where she hit me with a hard glass candle. . . twice.  I struggled to turn but could only lay on the floor in agony. I could barely see through the blood that now poured over my eyes. I reached up to my forehead to feel the wetness there. She must have cut me with some of the glass. I saw her back headed into the kitchen and my eyes landed on Nathanial. 

His whole body is heaved. He looked disheveled, as his frantic eyes took in my entire body. His forehead poured with sweat and I saw that his fists were visibly swollen. His face was a mixture of plain hard terror and enraged body shaking anger. 

It didn't take him long to collect himself, and I could see he was debating whether to tend to me or take down Emma who is now somewhere in the house laying in wait. For whatever reason, I couldn't speak, only a choked sob escaped my mouth so I motioned towards the kitchen.

This caused him to shake further before he broke into a full-on sprint into the kitchen. My feet on instinct alone sprung into action. Smart or not, I followed after him. Now, every modicum of fear was for him. 

I skidded to a halt at the sight of Nathanial standing across the room and I quickly located Emma by the breakfast bar across from him. 

We were standing in a perfect triangle, the sound of our heavy breaths filled the room while we flicked eyes at each other. . . but Emma was the only one flaunting a knife. The sizable blade glimmered as she turned it casually in her hand. It was pointed in my direction. The sight of the evil razor-sharp metal rocketed my fears. 

I looked on as the bane of Nathanial's existence played threateningly with a weapon. A weapon I know she planned to use. 

"I came back home Nat," she said and widened her stance. She was going to pounce at any moment. "Such a pleasure to see you again. . . after all these years." 

"No, it's not," he said through jagged breathing. "Why are you here?"

Her face twisted into a cold smile. "It hurt me to see you wallow in misery for so long. I get why you got with this one. . . but you don't need her anymore. See, I came back home to you Nat."

"You should've stayed dead," he said coldly. "This life I have now. . . without you- - I deserve this," he said. Angrily, my eyes clapped on him. He was pleading as though he were seeking approval from this deranged woman. 

It sliced through my heart. Even in this moment, he was still trying to convince himself that he deserved me. Anger simmered within me at the thought of him seeking her approval for anything. She is not his wife anymore.

"What about my happiness?" She pointed the knife at him this time. "What about what we had together. You think I'll believe that you can just turn it all off?"

"You abandoned me. I thought you were dead." His shouts were laced with agony. "You should've stayed dead Emma." 

"That's why I came back," she said nodding. "We have a chance at fixing things. We can be a family again see- -," she wiped at the tears running down her face.  "You don't need her. We have our son and everything we need to start all over again."

Nathaniel didn't respond, which angered her. She turned the knife on me and I could see Nathanial's eyes shift to me in nervously.  "You need to hear this," she said. "You will not have him. Not fully anyway. I am as much a part of him as the very air he breathes. No matter what, I will always be apart of him." She became smug. "All that shit he does for you, he did for me first. You're nothing special!"