Walle

Cortney's trembling throat, its sharp, sheared edge r

like fire. Cortney and Arlene were pressed flat against the wall, their ski

ice cutting like a scalpel. "Leave out a single word, and thi

in blade of condensed spiritual e

n

ed to my mother-exploded into fine green dust. The pressure grazed her ear,

loorboards as she sobbed. "Two years ago... in the autumn... Evelyn found out that Jacoby Chas

stroy my spiritual core had begun long b

Cortney blurted out, terrified that hesitation would cost him his life. "Arlene found out her route and applied c

from the poison Jacoby had fed me. And while she was risking her life for he

oke?" I asked, keeping m

thick root on the riverbank... I arrived at the scene ten minutes later... to keep her fr

wife's fingers while she clu

ter," I w

d my ri

oo

piercing cleanly through Cortney's left shoulder blade and p

gushed down the front of his tailored suit jacket. Arlene screamed in horror, losin

ttered glass toward them, "is just th

ne of Chase Group's headquarters loomed in the distance. "And as for Jacoby Chase... every dr

steps and the rattle of metal medical car

ust flatlined! Prep the crash cart and epinephrine!" Dr

inally triggered the hospital's central automated traum

ore. With a smooth motion, I yanked the steel rod from Cortney's shoulder and tossed the bloody metal into the wastebasket

ack against the pillows, my face pale, my chest heaving wi

Cortney slumped against the bloody wall, clutching his ruined shoulder, while Arlene

a

and a trauma team in blue s

d glasses up the bridge of his nose, h

r, and the crash cart tipped over. The entire t

ayes stammered, his eyes holding nothing but the e