---- Chapter 11 Killian POV: Awild, panicked energy surged through me. | had to find her. | had to fix this. | bolted from the bedroom, a singular thought screaming in my mind: find Emily. As | raced down the grand staircase, my phone buzzed on the floor where I'd dropped it. It was a notification from my private email, an account only a handful of people had access to. One of them was Emily. | snatched the phone up, my thumb swiping clumsily to open the email. The subject line was blank. The body contained only a single, password-protected file. My fingers, slick with a cold sweat, fumbled as | typed in her birthday, the code we used for everything. The file opened It was a flood of evidence. Screenshots of Dallas's harassing DMs. Receipts for the dead rat she' d had delivered. A hidden camera recording of Dallas "accidentally" spilling wine on Emily's mother's dress. And then, the video. | collided with Dallas at the bottom of the stairs. She had ---- followed me down, her face a mask of confusion and concern. "Killy, what's wrong? You're scaring me!" My chest heaved, my lungs burning. | shoved the phone in her face, my voice a strangled whisper. "Why? Why did you send this to her? Why would you show her a video of us?" The screen showed an intimate photo | didn't even remember taking, one Dallas must have snapped while | was asleep. Her face went white. "I... | didn't! She must have hacked my phone! She's trying to frame me!" "Liar!" | roared. | scrolled to the next file, the one that made my blood run cold. It was security footage from the hospital room. | jabbed the play button. The video showed Dallas, her voice a venomous hiss, tormenting Emily. It showed her deliberately crushing the clay bird. It showed her shoving Emily to the ground, then stomping on her hand. It showed her, a split second before | walked in, arranging her face into a mask of tearful terror. | remembered how |' d held her, comforted her, believed her every word. | had looked at Emily, bleeding on the floor, and | had called her the monster. Dallas was sputtering, trying to form a defense. "It's not what it looks like! She provoked me! She's always been jealous of me, ever since high school!" | kept scrolling through the files Emily had sent, each one a ---- fresh stab of guilt in my gut. Anonymously sent photos of Emily with her face photoshopped onto lewd images. A catering receipt for a party where someone had intentionally put shellfish-which Emily is mildly allergic to-into her "allergy- safe" dish. A whispered recording of Dallas on the phone, laughing about how easy it was to manipulate me. "He's like a puppet," she'd giggled. "So desperate for a little flattery, he'll believe anything." | had let this happen. My arrogance, my boredom, my selfish need for constant adoration had made me blind. | had given this viper the power to hurt the only person who had ever truly loved me. My gaze lifted from the phone to Dallas's terrified face. The warmth I'd felt for her had curdled into a cold, murderous rage. | took a step towards her, and she flinched. "You told me it was just a few harmless pranks," | said, my voice dangerously soft. "You told me you were just playing around." "| did it because | love you!" she cried, her voice cracking. "I couldn't stand seeing you with someone so far beneath you! She's nothing, Killian! I'm the one you should be with. We could get married, have a family-" She stopped, a triumphant, cunning look entering her eyes. She placed a hand on her flat stomach. "In fact," she said, her voice dropping to a dramatic whisper, "I'm pregnant, Killy. It's yours." ---- For a moment, the world stopped. Pregnant. A child. The one thing | had always wanted, the thing Emily and | had talked about for years. Aslow, chilling smile spread across my face. Dallas saw it and mistook it for joy. "We'll be a family," she said, relief flooding her features. But my smile wasn't one of joy. It was the smile of a man who had just been pushed over the edge, a man who had nothing left to lose. My voice, when | spoke, was as soft and gentle as a lover's whisper, but it held the promise of utter annihilation. "Is that so?"