Silent Night: A Holiday Novella (An Olivia Thompson Mystery Book 6) by Jullian Scott

Author:Jullian Scott [Scott, Jullian]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Published: 2017-12-02T05:00:00+00:00

CHAPTER FIVE

Ruby looked scared, but resigned as she stepped from behind the counter. She had been hunched down, hiding from her ex-husband, probably hoping that if he didn’t see her this would all end. Now, that wasn’t an option.

“Noel, why are you doing this?” she crossed her shaking arms over her chest. “This is crazy.”

“Crazy?” Noel waved the gun wildly again and Olivia winced. That had been a poor choice of words. “You want to know what’s crazy? Making up stories to tell the judge and having my daughter taken away from me.”

Ruby’s lower lip trembled. “Noel, I didn’t make up anything. You know that you have violent outbursts. I’ve been begging you to get help.”

“I never hurt you and I would never hurt Sylvia.” Noel was only focused on Ruby, ignoring Olivia and everyone else.

The pains in Olivia’s stomach and back were growing sharper and lasting longer. It felt like she was in labor, but it was too early for that. She took deep breaths and hoped that the pain would go away.

“You didn’t hurt us,” Ruby agreed. “Yet. But you’ve been drinking so much and you get angry when you drink. I didn’t trust you to be around Sylvia in that condition. You need help, Noel.”

“Like you never drink? Who do you think I’ve been drinking with these past five years?” Noel glared at her with utter hostility. “Sylvia wouldn’t even exist if you hadn’t gotten so drunk the night of our wedding.”

Ruby’s cheeks flushed hotly. “Our daughter was not a drunken mistake.”

“Noel.” Olivia stopped speaking and nearly doubled over as something pinched deep inside her stomach.

“What’s wrong with you?” Noel said, sounding scared. “You aren’t in labor, are you?”

“I think I am, Noel. You have to let us go. I need to get to a hospital.” Olivia sucked in several sharp breaths, but the pain only continued to grow. “I can’t have these babies yet. It’s too early.”

Ruby came forward to stand by Olivia’s side. “You have to open those doors, Noel. This woman needs a doctor.”

“Noel, hurting Ruby isn’t going to get you your daughter back. It’s only going to take away her mother. You don’t want to do that.” Olivia was too distracted by the pain to put much thought into her words. She was relying on instinct now.

“I didn’t come here to kill Ruby,” Noel said, sounding surprised that Olivia would think that. “I just came here so she would see how much she hurt me.”

Olivia finally understood. Noel hadn’t come there to hurt anyone. He was going to kill himself and make Ruby watch. He wanted her to live with the image of him pulling the trigger, wanted her to blame herself.

“Noel, you can’t do that. Think of little Sylvia. She needs you.” Olivia felt something wet soaking her pants and started to panic. If her water had broken, she needed to get to the hospital as soon as possible. “Don’t take her father from her.”

“Sylvia will be better off without me. Just ask Ruby.

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.