Butterfly by Nelle L’Amour

CHAPTER 56

Sofi

Kendra’s footsteps get closer. Clickety-clack. Clickety-clack. My heart thuds louder. My breathing grows shallow, coming out in short, sharp pants. Cloaked in darkness beneath layers of black crinoline, I will myself to calm my breathing. I can’t make a sound. She may find me. Even the slightest rustle may be a trigger. Stilling myself, my fingers come in contact with something. A smallish object. Strands of leather tickle my fingertips. It takes me no time to realize what it is. Roman’s flogger! This is where he must keep it hidden.

I clutch the wood handle and a memory zips to mind. When I was in middle school, I had a life-changing experience. Walking home, I came upon a bush where a spider’s lacy web wove around the leaves. Trapped inside it was a magnificent Monarch butterfly, just like Buddy, about to be devoured by a hungry bumblebee. Though deathly afraid of bees having been stung once, an incident that resulted in a visit to the emergency room, I knew I had to free it. It was my destiny. My fate. Finding a thick stick, I swatted at the bee, my heart in my throat, and to my amazement, scared it away. Carefully, I freed the unharmed butterfly. My eyes misted as it did a happy dance around me and flitted off.

I learned a lesson. Fate is not an accomplished fact. Destinies can be altered. Totally changed. The memory is cut short by a whoosh. Light pours into my eyes as the skirt of the dress lifts. I’m exposed! Kendra’s found me! Her sinister eyes make contact with mine.

“Ha! There you are! You can run, but you can’t hide.”

She points the gun at me and pulls the trigger back. Fuck her! At the sound of the click, I whip the flogger across her shin. Thwack! Kendra shrieks in pain. I strike her again and again. The snap of leather against flesh reverberates in my ears like a timber drum.

“Stop it, you fucking bitch!” yelps Kendra, bending down to rub the scarlet welts on her legs. Catching her off guard, I leap to my feet and tackle her, knocking her to the floor on her face. Groaning, she struggles to get up, but she can’t. My eyes search for the gun. Not in sight, it must be under her.

“I’m not done with you,” I thunder. Adrenaline pumping through my veins, rage ricocheting off my skin, I straddle her, my legs squeezing her haunches.

I crack the flogger against her back. Whack! “This is for pushing me down the stairs.”

She groans.

Another whack. “This is for trying to take Roman away from me!”

“Stop!” she cries.

Nothing is going to stop me. Nothing! I’ve just gotten started. It’s payback time!

“And this is for all the pain and sorrow you’ve caused Roman!”

Gripping the flogger so tightly my knuckles turn white, I morph into a savage beast, ruthlessly swatting her back, each lash harder and faster. Each crack of the leather sharper than the one before.

Faster. Harder. Louder. No mercy.

“STOP!” she sobs out, but her pathetic wail only makes me more ferocious. More determined. More feral. Blood seeps through the ivory silk fabric of her blouse, and I flash back to that unforgettable night with Roman, watching him flog himself, the welts on his back bleeding like red tears of sorrow. For a moment, my madness succumbs to sadness, but then fury again soars inside me.

Fuck her! An eye for an eye; a tooth for a tooth. Yeah, I could easily knock her teeth out, but what I really want to do is rip out one of her eyes. Destroy it the way she destroyed Roman’s. Dangle it from its bloody tendons in front of her. Then, feed it to a pack of rats.

An unexpected voice cuts into my maniacal fantasy.

“Christ, Sofi! What are you doing?”

Roman!

As I’m about to strike Kendra with the flogger yet again, his strong hands grip both my arms and hold me back.

“Let go of me!” I scream, struggling to wriggle myself free.

But I’m no match for his strength. He lifts me to my feet as Kendra crawls away and staggers to hers. Blood pours from her nose and her skin glints with a combination of sweat and tears. Her eyes narrow, sharpening like razors, while a vicious snarl curls on her blood-crusted lips.

“Roman, she tried to kill me!”

“Roman, don’t believe her!” I cry out. “She’s lying! She tried to kill me!”

Confused, Roman’s good eye bounces from me to her.

“Just look at me! I’m a bloody mess!” Kendra swipes at her nose, the blood staining her white glove.

Roman looks back at me. I meet his gaze.

“Roman, don’t fall for her. I can prove it! She forged a suicide note from me.” I point to the envelope still on the floor. I watch as he retrieves it and slips out the letter.

My eyes stay on Kendra while he reads it. My blood bubbles with nerves. The gun . . . where is it?

Roman looks up, his eye narrowed with suspicion. “Kendra, that’s not how Sofi spells her name.”

Kendra pounces. “Your stupid idiot assistant can’t even spell her own name correctly!”

“She’s not my assistant!”

Roman’s face hardens. He’s not falling for her bullshit. It’s time to break the devastating news to him. Drop the bomb.

“Roman, she also forged that DNA report.” A quick breath. “And killed Ava and your baby!”

“What!??” His jaw drops open; his face turns chalk white. The suicide note slips from his fingers and floats to the floor.

“She paid someone to rig your car.”

The vein in Roman’s temple is pulsating so hard it may break through his skin. Clenching his fists, his chest heaving, he inhales and exhales as if he’s breathing fire, and I swear flames may shoot out of his mouth. But not even words come out. The look on his face is one of sheer, inarticulate shock and horror. The look on Kendra’s is one of bold, uninhibited contempt and triumph.

Panic grips me like a vise. I need to rouse Roman from his paralyzed state before he goes numb or explodes like an atom bomb. And above all, I need to warn him.

“Roman, my love, be careful! She’s got a—”

Before I can complete my sentence, Kendra grabs me, squeezing my waist so tightly I can barely breathe. A cold hard barrel digs into the back of my head. Oh my God! It’s the gun! She must have hidden it behind her back.

“Kendra, are you out of your fucking mind?” thunders Roman, finding his voice and coming to his senses. “Put down the fucking gun.”

“Stand back, or I’ll shoot the bitch first!”

Roman doesn’t budge. I can’t imagine what’s going through his head. One of us is going to end up dead. More likely, we both will.

Still holding the loaded weapon to my head, Kendra lets out a theatrical sigh. “You gave me no choice, Roman, but to eliminate Ava. No matter what I did, you snubbed me. I must say it’s a real shame about the baby.” She smirks. “Oh, and so sorry about your eye.”

Roman looks as though his entire world is caving in. His pain is my pain. His life, my life. If he dies, I want to die too. Kendra jabs the gun harder into my skull.

“And then she came along. Your precious little butterfly.”

“Don’t hurt her.” Roman’s voice is a rough cross between a threat and a prayer. “It’s me you want. Let her go and I’ll give you everything you want.”

She cackles. “It’s a little too late for that. Wouldn’t you agree, Roman? And honestly, do you really think I’m stupid?”

“Kendra, please—”

“Shut up!”

Deadly silence.

“I never planned to hurt you, Roman. I loved you! But now I have no choice.”

“You’ll never get away with this, Kendra!”

“You won’t be here to find out. Nor will she!”

Tears stay frozen in my eyes. A reservoir of ice as Kendra pulls back the trigger. Click.

An icy shiver skates down my spine. Likely the last one I’ll ever feel.

“Fuck you, Kendra!” Roman hurls the words at her like grenades and then, on what I believe is my last breath, he lunges at us.

“Roman!” I cry out, squeezing my eyes shut.

A shot is fired, the explosive sound blasting through the air, shattering my heart. I scream. Oh my God, she’s shot my beloved Roman. Bawling, I blink my eyes open and I’m freed. To my shock, Kendra is sprawled on the floor. Her glazed eyes stare at the ceiling, and a fountain of blood spurts from a hole in her forehead. Roman is next to her, face down, surrounded by a bloodbath. He doesn’t move.

He’s dead too.

“NOOOOOO!” I cry, my wail echoing off the walls. There’s a knife in my heart that I can’t pull out. I feel like I’ve died too. The crimson pool expands around Kendra’s limp body.

Tears blur my vision. I blink once. I blink twice. My blood pounds in my ears, my heart stutters. Is it possible?

Roman stirs.

Holding my breath, I watch as he staggers to his feet and stumbles my way. My eyelids flutter. Is this my love in the flesh or is this an apparition?

“Butterfly,” he murmurs, taking me into his arms.

I hear him. I feel him. His heart beats against mine.

“Roman.” His name is soft on my lips like a prayer.

We hold each other tightly, my tears subsiding, until a familiar voice rips us apart.

“C’est fini.”

We spin around. Standing at the top of the stairs as stoic as a soldier is Madame DuBois, a gun in her hand.

“Mes enfants, enjoy your evening. Bonne nuit.” Without another word, she about-faces and vanishes like a vapor. The dam behind my eyes breaks again, but this time my river of tears is a release of pent-up emotions. I almost lost my life; I almost lost Roman.

Roman lifts me up. Still crying, I curl my limbs around him and he smooths my damp hair.

“Shh, my sweet butterfly, it’s over.” Tenderly, he kisses my eyelids, my cheeks, my nose, my lips. All the tears away. Each touch of his warm lips calming me and infusing me with love.

“I love you so much,” I whisper, breathing into his slightly parted mouth.

“I know, my darling. Until I met you, I never knew how much I loved butterflies. They’re the most beautiful creatures on earth.”

He tips up my chin. Our mouths meld. Our souls connect.

Just like the wings of a butterfly, we’re two hearts united by body and mind.