Reborn to Ruin Him novel · Chapter 12 of 24

Chapter 12: The Dock

The taxi stood empty at the end of the lake road with its door hanging open.

Gabriel slammed the car to a stop behind it, and we ran down the slope to the water.

The boathouse dock stretched out black over the lake. At the end of it, in a white gown that had lost its color in the dark, stood Rosalind.

"Rosalind!" Gabriel shouted. "Come back from there!"

She turned.

Her face was wet, and her hair was blown flat. She had her arms around her stomach.

"Stay where you are," she said. "I mean it."

"Nobody's going to hurt you."

"You were going to throw me out. You and her." She laughed, high and cracked. "It doesn't matter anymore."

Gabriel walked slowly out onto the planks.

I followed three steps behind, and I took out my phone and pressed record.

"Rosalind," he said. "Look at me. You aren't going in that water."

"Why not?"

"Because you're carrying a child."

"His child!" she sobbed. "Do you know whose?"

She took one step back.

The old board at the dock's edge gave way under her heel with a crack.

She went over backward without a sound.

Gabriel was in the water before the ring spread.

I stood at the end of the dock and dialed the emergency number with my burned hand, and I heard my own voice give the address.

The lake went flat and black.

Every passing second stretched out, agonizingly long.

At last a head broke the surface. Then a second.

Gabriel came up with one arm around her chest, and he hauled her to the ladder.

I got down on my knees and took her wrist and pulled with everything I had.

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