The Moral Dilemma (War of Sins Book 5)

THE FIRST THING Noelle was aware of as she came around was pain. So much pain. Her entire body ached, but it was no match to the pain radiating from between her legs. She could feel the blood trickle out of her vagina and she instinctively clenched her muscles, which resulted in even more pain.

Her eyes sluggishly opened, her mouth parched as she looked around in disorientation.

“Lulu?” she asked, her voice raw and rough.

She’d strained herself and screamed so much that she could barely speak anymore.

Slowly, the events from before flooded her mind.

She’d been in labor for hours on end, and it had been a strenuous process as she’d tried her best to push the baby into the world. She remembered hearing the sweet sound of his voice as he’d cried for the first time before she’d finally allowed herself to sink into oblivion.

How much time had passed since then? She didn’t know how long she’d been out of it. She only knew that she wanted to see her baby, hold him in her arms and feel his warmth for the first time.

“Lulu? Where are you?” she called out again.

Lucero didn’t answer, and Noelle couldn’t see her around.

She frowned, but she wasn’t worried yet. Knowing Lucero, she was probably looking for food for the baby.

Slowly, she raised herself on her arms, her breathing labored at that small movement. She could see her navy blue dress was stained with blood, as were the sheets under her.

At first, her heart seized in her chest, thinking something was wrong with her. But she soon perished that thought. She was still alive, wasn’t she? There was nothing to worry about. Giving birth was often messy. It happened.

Quietly convincing herself that everything was normal, she tried to swing her legs off of the bed to go to the bathroom. It took some effort, but she managed to get there.

It was extremely painful to relieve herself, and as she cleaned up, she noticed more blood coming out. Instead of panicking, she discarded her dress and washed the best she could before putting on a fresh gown. Since she was still bleeding, she put on a pad.

Feeling a little bit better about herself, she wobbled back into her room, surprised to see another girl changing her sheets.

“Where is Lucero?” Noelle asked, not liking the idea of having a stranger in her room—especially when she was at her most vulnerable.

The girl looked up, her eyes wide as she bit on her lip, uncertain about how to answer.

Noelle tilted her head to the side, studying her.

Despite the constant pain she was in, she was still in control of all her mental faculties. And her instincts were currently telling her that something was seriously wrong.

“Where is my baby?” She rephrased the question.

Immediately, the girl reacted, and a deep discomfort settled in Noelle’s body.

“Talk!” She raised her voice, taking a step forward and intending to make the girl talk.

But she was in no position to do so, and she noticed that as soon as she tried to move. The birth had taken a toll on her body, and she was too weak to do anything.

“You know something, don’t you?” Noelle asked again, this time gentling her tone.

The girl nodded, her cheeks red as she looked between Noelle and the exit.

Oh, no! She couldn’t let her leave without getting some answers.

Now it was becoming increasingly clear that Lucero’s absence was suspicious. Pure fear gripped her as she tried to keep her voice in check.

“Did El Señor take her?”

Again, the girl seemed to know something, but she wasn’t speaking. Her silence was making Noelle more and more worried, especially as she knew the danger Sergio posed to her baby. Good God, but if something were to happen to him… If Sergio had taken her baby…

“Please,” she whispered, moving closer.

Before the girl could flee, Noelle did something she never thought she would do. She reached behind her neck, unclasping her precious necklace and extending it towards the girl. “Please tell me what happened. You can have this. It’s valuable enough that you can leave this place,” she added, knowing the girl was likely afraid to speak because of the repercussions.

The girl looked longingly at the necklace, and she seemed to debate for a few moments whether to say anything.

“Please,” Noelle pleaded again. “I need to know where my child is.”

Noelle didn’t know whether it was her anguished expression that finally convinced her or the allure of the necklace, but the girl finally gave a sharp nod. She accepted the necklace, and Noelle immediately felt bereft without it.

He would have approved, she told herself. Raf would not have been mad at her for using the necklace for such an important thing. And even though that necklace held a small piece of her heart, her child was more important.

“El señor asked Lucero to bring the child to him,” the girl replied.

“Where?” Noelle rasped out, fear unlike she’d ever experienced eating her from the inside out.

She pursed her lips, her fingers tightening over the necklace.

“The temple. She took him to the temple.”

“Thank you.” She gave her a nod. She didn’t wait for the girl’s reply as she went out the door. Not surprisingly, there were no guards stationed there. Perhaps Sergio had thought her too weak to move or do anything after the birth so he hadn’t bothered. Or, perhaps, he intended all along for her to come to him.

“Please, God… Please let my baby be safe and sound,” she chanted as she walked as briskly as she could considering the state she was in.

No one paid her any mind as she crossed the small expanse of land between the house and the temple, but Noelle was too busy to worry about her child to notice anything amiss.

In her mind, everything hinged on the wellbeing of Mali, and with each step she took toward the temple, she feared she would encounter the worst scenario—after all, why would Sergio require the baby so soon after the birth? She was convinced he had nefarious intentions, and she was afraid she would arrive too late.

“Why, Lulu? Why did you take him to Sergio?” she asked, her features twisted from pain.

She could not believe that her friend would betray her like that—not when she’d told her that the baby came first. Noelle didn’t care anymore about what happened to her as long as her child survived. He was the most important thing in her life, and if she had to fight to the death to protect him, she would.

Determination entered her features as she reached the entrance of the temple. She might be physically weak, but her will was strong. Regardless of what Sergio thought to do, she would prevail.

Entering the temple, she immediately heard a low melody echoing through the chambers. Frowning, she followed the sound. The hallway was dimly lit, leading into the main chamber that was bathed in light. There were a few people on each side of the chamber, all wearing the same robes and masks they’d done when she’d witnessed one of Sergio’s insane rituals.

Her eyes took in her surroundings, cataloging every little detail for later use.

In the middle of it all was Sergio, wearing his full regalia. But where was Lucero? And where was her baby?

“Alas, you’ve joined us,” Sergio exclaimed when Noelle stepped inside the room.

He removed his own mask, flinging it aside. Coming towards her, he looked her up condescendingly, his mouth tipping up in a derisive smile.

“You don’t look too bad.”

“Why, thank you,” Noelle replied dryly. “My baby. Where is he?” she demanded, meeting his gaze head on.

“Wouldn’t you like to know?” His smile deepened.

“Give me back my baby, Sergio, or you will regret this. You all will regret this,” she said as she looked around at everyone sitting on the sidelines.

“As if you can do anything in your condition,” Sergio laughed.

“Oh, I can do more than you think,” Noelle snarled. “My baby. Where. Is. He? I won’t ask twice, Sergio. The next time I do is going to be with my entire family backing me and with the FBI and the Mexican police on your trail. Are you sure you want to risk that?”

“You speak as if you’d survive long enough to be able to do that,” Sergio mocked.

Before Noelle could ask him what he meant by that, he turned, heading to the back of the room.

She frowned, following his movements, confused about what he meant to do. As he reached for a box, she tensed, assuming a fighting stance as she prepared to seek cover if he were to shoot at her.

Yet it wasn’t a gun that he removed from the box. Nor was it a knife.

It was…

Her eyes widened in shock.

It was her baby.

He lifted it by one leg, letting his little body hang in the air as he waved it around for everyone in the room to see.

Instinctively, she took a step forward, tears pouring down her cheeks as she realized this was her first sighting of her baby—and likely the last.

God, but he was beautiful. So much so that she wanted to weep with joy at the sight of him. But she also realized the precariousness of the moment and the fact that she was at Sergio’s mercy.

Before she knew it, her knees buckled and she fell to the ground.

“Please,” she uttered the word with a subservience that belied everything she stood for. “Please give me back my baby,” she begged.

“Now where would be the fun in that?” Sergio lifted a brow.

Noelle’s eyes went from Sergio to her baby as she realized something was seriously wrong with Mali. He wasn’t moving. He wasn’t making any sound. Shouldn’t newborns make some sounds? Shouldn’t they cry, or whine?

“Please…”

“And what are you willing to do for it?” He smirked as he asked the question.

Noelle blinked. So this was his game. He was going to use her son to subjugate her.

Releasing a sigh, she lowered her gaze.

So be it.

“Anything,” she replied.

“Crawl to me,” he said, his eyes sparkling with malice.

Noelle took a deep breath, and on her hands and knees, she slowly crawled towards him. She didn’t say a word, afraid that he would do something to her baby if she didn’t comply with his commands.

When she reached his feet, she kept her gaze to the ground.

“So obedient,” he murmured derisively. “So this is what it takes to keep you in check.”

“Please,” she whispered. “You can do anything to me. Just don’t harm my child. He’s just a baby, Sergio,” she said, slowly looking up in an attempt to plead with him.

He sported the same amused expression on his face as he regarded her.

God… If she wasn’t so weak. Her baby was within reach. If only she had more strength, she could tackle Sergio and get her baby back. As it was, she worried she would do more harm than good, and her baby might get hurt in the process.

“I can do anything to you?” He raised a brow. “My, my,” he laughed. “How does it feel to be on the losing side, Noelle? You might have won some battles, but I win this war,” he gloated.

She swallowed hard. Never in a million years would she have anticipated the fact that she would have a child, and that would put both of them at Sergio’s mercy.

“What do you want, Sergio?” she asked in a low voice, resigned to her fate.

Whatever he wanted her to do, she would—anything for her baby’s life. And knowing Sergio, Noelle was sure he would thoroughly humiliate her for everything she’d done to him.

“You know what you did to me,” he said, his eyes boring into hers. “What would you say would be a fitting punishment for it?”

“I… I don’t know. Whatever you see fit.”

“Ah, but that’s just the thing, my treacherous wife. I aim to take an eye for an eye,” he snarled.

Noelle blinked in confusion, but in her state she was too slow to realize what Sergio had in mind. She never saw the knife in his hand, and by the time he raised it against her son, it was too late.

She was frozen to the spot, forced to watch as he stabbed the knife into the child’s torso, cutting from his chest to his pelvis. Blood poured onto the ground as he split the baby into two.

When the cut was done, he threw the knife aside, using his hand to scoop his heart out of his little body.

Noelle was too horrified to be able to move.

She was in such a deep state of shock that she only realized what he’d done when her child’s blood poured onto her face. Taking the small heart out of his chest, he flung it at Noelle.

Startled, she jumped away, falling onto her back. Her eyes were wide with horror, her entire body shaking as she watched the death of her child.

“Wh—” she stammered, unable to form a coherent sentence.

“An eye for an eye,” Sergio continued. “You took something from me. Now I’m taking the same from you,” he told her, his voice dripping with satisfaction.

He dropped the child to the ground, but just as Noelle reached for him, Sergio brought his booted foot over the baby’s head. The sound of bones breaking echoed in the air.

Tears clung to Noelle’s lashes as she looked and looked, willing everything to be just a nightmare.

Please… Not my baby.

Yet the more she stared, the more she was forced to realize that it was her baby.

And he was dead. He was… dead.

Laughter rang throughout the temple as Sergio’s associates mocked her pain.

“Someone clean the trash,” Sergio called out, stepping away from the corpse.

Noelle still could not tear her gaze from the body, or from the horror of what had happened. She only snapped out of it when someone tried to move her. As her shock wore off, her adrenaline kicked in and she started struggling, pushing the man away.

Before they could touch her child, she snatched his little body off of the ground—or what was left of him—and she ran out of the temple.

She barely made it back to the house in her condition. Hot liquid poured down her legs, but she didn’t pay it any mind. So what if she was bleeding? How could she think about herself now, when her child lay dead in her arms?

As she reached her room, she slowed down, tentatively stepping towards the small cradle she’d built during her confinement. It had been one of the few activities she’d been allowed to indulge in. Back then, she’d infused all the love she had for the baby in its design, dreaming up the day he would sleep peacefully in the cradle, next to her bed. She’d imagined countless times how he would fit in her arms, and how he would suckle at her breast.

And now? His features were so distorted she couldn’t even make out what he’d looked like.

He was her son, yet she’d never known him.

What type of mother was she? What type of mother let something like this happen to her child?

Carefully, she placed him in the cradle, watching him for a moment and letting the tears fall down her cheeks at last.

“I’m sorry,” she whispered, her heart breaking in her chest. “It’s all my fault.”

He lay still—so utterly still, and the more she looked at him, the more she felt her chest well up with so much despair it could drown out the world.

“I’m sorry,” she repeated, her voice breaking. “I’m sorry you had to be born to a mother like me.”

But she couldn’t send him off like this. So with what little strength she had left, she opened her mouth and started humming a song. It was a mournful melody, but one that came straight from her soul, transposed into sound by the power of her anguish.

She sang to him one last song—what should have been a lullaby was now a mortuary piece.

“He’ll pay,” she croaked when the song came to an end. “They will all pay.”

Taking a blanket, she laid it over his small body, covering him carefully—both as a reverent gesture and to avoid looking at his broken visage.

“Sleep, my angel. I’ll see you soon.”

If Noelle’d had any hope before, it had all been crushed. An aching emptiness enveloped her—one that was like a storm violently brewing, ready to strike.

Her mind turned completely blank as she turned off all emotions—all but one.

Anger.

She was still in shock from witnessing the death of her baby, and though she could conceptualize to a certain degree the reality of her situation, she didn’t want to dig too deeply into it. She was well aware that her pain was poking through the surface, and once she let it free, it would simply consume her until there was nothing left of her.

And she meant to do that—become one with her pain before she became one with nothingness. But before that, she had one goal.

Revenge.

Once, she’d fought for the people she loved.

Now, she had no one left—no one to protect.

She didn’t even have herself anymore, for while her body was still alive—though barely—her soul had died in tandem with her son.

But before she closed her eyes, she meant to give Sergio a taste of his own medicine.

If before she hadn’t been able to take that one last step to kill him because she was afraid of the repercussions, now nothing else mattered.

She’d die anyway. But this way, she was bringing him down with her.

With one last parting gaze, she left her baby, locking her apartment with a key and following the sound of music blasting through the house.

Surely enough, Sergio was celebrating his win with his closest friends and a mariachi band. Food was lavishly stretched out on the tables, together with jugs full of wine and mescal.

Sergio was laughing at something one of the other men said when he suddenly sobered up as he noticed her presence.

“Don’t tell me you came looking for more?” he guffawed as he took a swig of his drink.

Noelle didn’t reply. Her face was completely blank and expressionless as she took one step, then another. Without taking her eyes off Sergio, she grabbed a knife from the table and stabbed it into the eye of the man closest to her. Blood spurted out of his face, but before anyone could do anything, Noelle grabbed the gun from his belt and aimed it towards the other people, shooting indiscriminately. She didn’t aim for Sergio, though. No, that monster would die by her hands.

Mayhem descended upon them as she simply emptied her bullets into every person, killing everyone before they even had the chance to draw their weapons against her.

Sergio quickly sobered up when he realized how serious she was. From his previous amused expression, a semblance of fear entered his features as he hid behind a table, haphazardly searching the corpses for a weapon to defend himself.

When at last he found a gun, he slowly raised himself to aim at her.

Noelle’s lip curled up into a cruel smile.

He only needed to uncover a little bit of flesh and she aimed for it. Before he could fire at her, she shot the weapon out of his hand.

One step at a time, she walked among the corpses, letting her bare feet soak in the blood of those who’d watched her son be murdered and had laughed.

They’d laughed.

She stepped on them as Sergio had stepped on her baby.

“You won the war?” she laughed as she reached Sergio’s side. He was still wildly looking for another weapon while his right hand was bleeding profusely. “You didn’t win anything, Sergio. You just woke the beast,” she ground out, her eyes bleak.

“You’re insane…” he muttered, looking right and left for an exit.

“Insane?” She laughed hysterically. “Me? Insane?” Suddenly, she stopped, looking him dead in the eye. “You haven’t seen insane,” she said as she pointed her gun to his shoulder, shooting. She did the same to the other shoulder, strategically choosing spots that wouldn’t kill him. He didn’t deserve an easy death. Oh, no, he deserved an eternity of pain.

“That was your mistake. You’ve always underestimated me,” she snickered at him, disgusted by his low cries of pain.

“You…” he sputtered. “Cursed was the day I married you.”

“Oh, you’ve just realized?” Noelle raised a brow. “You really thought killing my child would get your revenge? You really thought you could get rid of me so easily?”

“You shouldn’t have been able to move…”

“Oh, so that’s it, isn’t it? You thought I’d be too weak after giving birth to fight you.” She shook her head. “Can’t you see how cowardly that makes you? You can’t even fight a girl, you pathetic piece of shit,” she spat at him.

Coming closer, she got to her knees in front of him—all so she could witness the life leave his eyes when she finally pulled the trigger.

He was howling in pain, his eyes wide as he tried to scoot away from her.

“You call yourself a man?” Noelle continued.

She could see the hate in his eyes—oh, it was more than hate. He absolutely abhorred her, just as she did him. But she could also see the fear.

“I should have killed you when I had the chance,” he gritted out.

“Maybe. But you were too much of a coward to do that too, weren’t you?” Noelle chuckled. “Now let’s see. How should I end your life?” she mused as she brought her gun to his face, trailing it down his cheek. “Do you know what the head looks like when it explodes from a bullet? I do. I witnessed it when I was fifteen.”

He blinked, unconsciously pulling away from her.

“Tsk, tsk,” Noelle said, pulling him forward by his shirt. “You were so brave and strong a moment ago when you mercilessly killed my baby. Now? Did you pee yourself yet?” She laughed as she brought the tip of the gun to his crotch. “Let’s see…” She pursed her lips. “If I shoot you here, will I even hit anything?”

And to prove her words were not empty, she dug the barrel of her gun between his legs, pulling the trigger.

A loud, shrieking sound erupted in the air as Sergio doubled over in pain. Still, he wasn’t dead, and likely wouldn’t be for quite some time. After all, he’d survived having his dick cut off, surely he’d survive another attempt.

Noelle wanted to take her sweet time maiming him so that by the time she was done with him he’d beg her to kill him, and still, she would prolong his misery.

“Come on, show me what you’re made of. Curse me out! Hit me! Show me who’s the man,” she taunted.

When he didn’t say a word, she pushed a finger through one of the gunshot wounds in his shoulder, digging into his flesh and watching his face contort in pain.

“Come on!” she cried out.

Once more, Sergio couldn’t speak because of the pain, but that only enraged Noelle more. In a fit of pure anger, she threw herself at him, hitting him with her fists and the butt of the gun wherever she could. While she wasn’t in the best condition to be fighting anyone, she already knew that her hours were numbered as well. At least this way she’d leave this Earth with the satisfaction that she’d doled out her revenge.

She hit and hit until her own flesh scraped off her knuckles—until Sergio’s face was a mangled mess beyond recognition, just as he’d done to her child.

“Pathetic piece of shit,” she screamed. “Die! Die! Die!” she screeched until her throat was raw, her voice finally breaking. Still, she didn’t stop hitting him.

The repeated blows eroded at his face until the bone peeked through the battered flesh. But Noelle wasn’t satisfied. Throwing the gun aside, she used her thumbs to push into his eye sockets, using enough strength that she felt the pop of his eyeballs under her fingertips. Still, she didn’t stop. She continued to push against his face until she met the hard wall of his sphenoid, sticking her thumbs far enough that she broke through the fragile bone.

He’d stopped moving at that point, but Noelle could still sense a faint pulse. How he’d managed to survive all those injuries and acute pain was besides her, but she was happy she could make him suffer for a moment more.

She looked around her, and spotting a few utensils filled to the ground, she grabbed a fork and a butter knife and stuck them in the holes she’d made into his skull. She pushed with so much force, she was sure she reached his brain. A sick smile spread on her face as she lifted the utensils before plunging them again. And again. She did it until her arms tired and until brain matter had spattered on the edges of his eye sockets.

She did it until she was sure he was dead. And even then, she regretted she couldn’t hurt him more.

“Coward,” she croaked with what little voice she had left.

She stared at him for a moment, waiting to feel relief at finally seeing him dead. But no matter how much she tried, she couldn’t mask the loss that she felt so deep in her heart. She’d used her pain to kill and maim, yet in the end, nothing had worked.

Her heart was still so full of anguish, and she realized that likely nothing would ever heal that.

On shaky legs, she got to her feet.

She was bloodied from head to toe. Some was hers, still flowing freely from between her legs, the other was from her victims. After the adrenaline of the moment wore off, she started to feel the effects of her exertion. Blinding pain hit her from all sides as she swayed on her feet.

“No,” she whispered. “It’s not over yet.”

There was one more person who had to pay.

The one whose betrayal stung the most.

Lucero.

Why? Why had she handed her baby to Sergio on a platter? She’d known he would harm him, and she’d still done it.

Why?

“Whyyy?” she screamed, though her voice was barely above a whisper.

She’d trusted her more than anyone. Hell, she’d trusted her with her child.

Though Noelle could hardly believe that her beloved friend would do something like that, she couldn’t deny the evidence in front of her.

Lucero had taken her baby straight to Sergio, leading him straight to his death. And that… she could never forgive that.

As she walked down the corridor, Noelle realized she could barely keep herself upright. Every step she took was one step closer to her death. Her body was failing her, it was as simple as that. But even as she knew she was dying, she couldn’t allow anyone who’d had a hand in her son’s death to live.

Only her steely will led her to the stables, from where she procured two tanks of gasoline. Unscrewing the lid on the tanks, she held one in each hand as she walked alongside the inside of the house, pouring gasoline onto the floor. She covered as much ground as she could before she headed outside, doing the same thing to the surrounding area of the hacienda. She bathed every bit of land in gasoline, knowing fully well there were still people inside. But they, too, were people who had, directly or indirectly, led to the death of her son. As such, they would die too.

She didn’t care about morality, about principles, or about the value of human life. In that moment, she was one with her despair, one with her revenge. She was, and she wasn’t.

Noelle could recognize the anguish that drummed against her ribcage, but she was too focused on her plan to let it loose, for she knew that once she gave in… Once she truly let herself feel the magnitude of what had happened, she would die from her soul’s pain alone.

Gritting her teeth, she pushed those thoughts out of her mind.

There were still things to be done.

Though the tanks were getting emptier, they felt heavier to her weary body. When she reached the front of the hacienda, she emptied the last drops, dumping the containers to the ground.

She took a deep, painful breath as she looked at the house for one last parting moment.

Tears trickled down her cheeks as slowly, the box in which she’d hidden all her pain started to crumble.

“I’m sorry, Raf,” she murmured, her heart breaking anew. No matter how much she loved him, she could never face him again after what she’d done—after their child had died because of her. How could she?

She loved him just as much as she hated herself.

Reaching into her pocket, she retrieved a box of matches. Lighting one of them, she flung it to the trail of gasoline she’d left behind, watching as the flames roared to life, quickly swallowing everything in their path.

One spark turned into an inferno, the fire blazing across the lawn and licking at the house’s walls.

It took only moments for the entire building to be enveloped in flames.

All the while, Noelle watched from the sidelines.

“I couldn’t keep my promise,” she mouthed, the ghost of a smile pulling at her lips. “I’m sorry I couldn’t wait for you, Raf. Maybe we won’t meet again in this life. But maybe the next…” she trailed off. “Maybe in the next you’ll forgive me,” she choked on her tears as the pain in her heart became too much to handle.

In her short life, Noelle’d had two big loves. The first had been Rafaelo. Her blue. The other half of her soul and the only person with whom she’d ever shared herself fully. He’d been the light to her darkness, the one beacon that helped her muddle through the ups and downs of her life. The second had been her child. She might not have met him while he’d been alive, but she’d had nine months with him—nine months to talk to him and tell him how much she loved him.

Despite the tragedy of her life, she couldn’t bring herself to regret it.

Two loves. Two great loves.

But now… Now she had no one. And soon, she would be no one too.

She only hoped that her Raf was safe and sound, and that perhaps at some point in his life he’d remember her and the love she’d had for him.

That was her only hope.

Smiling sadly, she took a step forward.

“Wait for me, my love,” she whispered to her child. “Mommy’s coming home.”

The smoke from the fire clogged her airways, already making her reel. But she wasn’t deterred.

Just a little bit more.

The heat caressed her skin, and in the distance, she thought she heard his voice.

Lucero!

No! At least in death she wanted to hear him call her name.

She closed her eyes and took another step. She thought she heard the sound of a baby crying. There, she was getting closer, already envisioning what her afterlife with her baby would look like.

But just as she became comfortable with the idea of dying—just as her body felt the strength of the flames, she was pulled back by a startling force.

She barely had time to react as she found herself on her back, the grass cushioning her fall. Still, her bones rattled, her poor body close to its limit.

“What did you do?” a familiar voice demanded.

Noelle’s eyes snapped open, and she was greeted by the most beautiful sight she’d ever seen.

He was there. He was…

“What the hell did you do?” he screamed louder, his hands closing in on her neck, and slowly squeezing the life out of her.

If at first Noelle would have thought he was the product of her imagination, it quickly became clear that he was very much real. He was right there, in front of her and he… He thought her the enemy.

She blinked, opening her mouth to speak, but finding herself unable to say anything.

She whizzed as he increased his hold on her neck, and finally, panic settled into her features.

He didn’t know that she was his Lucero. He believed her to be the one who’d tortured and abused Lucero. And now he was…

Raf, please! she screamed inside her mind, but the sound wouldn’t come out.

His eyes were glazed and full of insanity as he continued to choke her.

Yet just as she thought she couldn’t hold on any longer, a succession of shots rang out before his brown shirt was stained with red—blood that trickled down onto her face.

Her eyes widened for a moment, and as he fell limply on top of her, she found herself trapped in her worst nightmare.

No! No! Noooooo!

At that moment, maybe her body was still alive. But her mind was not.

On her face lingered the blood of both of her greatest loves. And in her heart was etched the pain of losing both.

At that moment, Noelle ceased to exist.