Crowned by Hate (Crowned 1)

“Shut up!” she screamed, lifting her leg and booting me square in the face. My head snapped back and I fall backward. Throbbing numb pain starts to vibrate over the back of my head as everything started slipping in and out of consciousness again.

No. Fuck off. I am not going down like a little bitch.

“Tsk tsk, Isa…” she laughed, tilting her head back.

Beep.

Beep.

That fucking sound again.

“You thought you could escape me?” Brooke laughed as I struggled to keep my eyes open, the assault of a bright light booming in front of my eyes. I threw my arm up to shield from the assault. I reached for the crowbar that was beside me and got to my feet. Rearing it backward, I stabbed the sharp end of it through her chest.

“Fuck you!” I roared, with so much release of hate, I dropped to the floor. She clutched her chest and fell to her back. The sounds of her choking on her own blood like a sweet lullaby to my frantic thoughts.

“Isa!” I know that voice.

“Bryant?” I squint my eyes toward the light, but before I can make out the shape of whoever it is that’s there, Bryant comes running inside. “Don’t move!”

My eyelashes are flicking, everything coming back into view clearly.

“Bryant grips my arm while wrapping his suit jacket around my bare chest. “Get up, baby. Can you move?” I look around then back to Bryant and nod, standing tall on my feet. I swipe the tears off my face, eying a long crowbar that has just been tossed to the side in the corner of the room. I went straight toward it, picking up the rusted handle and swinging it over my shoulder before turning back toward Brooke.

She laughed, her head tilting back. “Oh what? You really think you can hit me with that thing? I can’t die, Isa.” Launching my elbow back, I grinned. “Yep.” Before slamming it across her head. She dropped to the ground as blood begins to ooze out of her head.

“Isa…” Bryant whispers into my hair, but I can’t respond because all of a sudden

Blackness seeps in and I drop to the ground.

22

“What do you mean?” Bryant? Is that him talking?

“I mean, it’s complicated…” That’s my dad—no doubt.

“How so? Explain. I have time.”

“It’s just, Isa is troubled.”

“I know she’s troubled!” Bryant’s voice kicks up a notch, and I flinch inwardly. “That’s what the fuck I find so sexy about her.”

“Okay, there’s a few things wrong with that statement.” Is that my sister? What the hell is she doing here. “What my father is trying to say, is that she’s a little more wild than the average girl. But I’m sure you already know that.”

Long pause, and then the mattress sinks under someone’s weight.

“Of course I know that,” Bryant mutters, before softly adding, “But she’s mine.”

My heart soars inside my chest at those words coming out of Bryant’s mouth. I’m his. Not too long ago, I was driving him crazy, now he’s jumping up and claiming me on the first go. Slowly, I feel my skin tingle and their talking becomes louder.

My eyes open. “Hey.” Pressing myself off the hospital bed, I rub the sleep from my eyes.

“Oh thank fuck!” Bryan turns to face me, his hand coming to my face. “How you feeling?”

“Good…I think.” I look around the room to find not just Bryant and my parents there, but Bryant’s parents and sister too.

His mom comes to my bed, taking my hand in hers. “We don’t blame you, Isa.” Through my tears, I look around the room until I see Jessica, who is now coming toward me.

“Sisters are better than brothers anyway.”

“Hey!” Bryant scolds her.

I laugh, swiping the tears off of my cheeks and casting a small look to my sister who was curled up in a ball on the other side of the room, tears pouring down her face. “Yeah, they totally are.”

“Please take me home.”

“Renewing your vows? Like, who even does that?” Brianna scolds, straightening my hair from the back.

“Us, of course. And you already know how we don’t do anything by the book, Bri.” She pauses, putting the brush back onto the dresser.

“You’re right.” She brushes off a piece of my hair from my shoulder. “I’m sorry. I think pregnancy is making me cranky.”

“Hey!” I laugh. “I’ve been pregnant too, and you didn’t see me breathing fire.” She steps back and laughs. “You were a freak of nature. When I hit that third trimester, damn. You get fat, swollen, cranky, and don’t even get me started about the confusion of your sex drive. Do you want it? Or not? You need it but the thought of it grosses you out and then there’s the fat thing again, and the hungry thing so you jus—”

I zone out of my sister’s stupid ramblings and look back at myself in the mirror. After the Brooke and Devon ordeal, it’s been a rough year, but through it all, Bryant and I have never been stronger. It was his idea to renew our vows since I gave birth to Harper last week. I know, everyone had asked me if I was crazy getting remarried in my post-pregnancy state, but none of that matters to Bryant and me.